GameStop Lawsuit Claims Retailer Fails to Warn Consumers that Digital Purchases Don’t Equate to True Ownership

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims that GameStop fails to adequately disclose that the property rights afforded to a consumer who buys a digital copy of a video game are often not the same as those afforded to someone who buys a physical copy.

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The 26-page lawsuit alleges that the video game retailer fails to disclose to consumers that buying a game through the GameStop website does not confer the same property ownership rights as the purchase of a physical copy of a game. Instead, consumers who buy games from GameStop online unknowingly receive “a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license” to access the game, maintained at the manufacturer’s discretion.

The alleged lack of appropriate disclosure, the suit claims, violates several California consumer protection and business laws, including the California Digital Property Rights Transparency Law, which, among other things, requires sellers and retailers to clearly and conspicuously disclose whether they are selling a product or merely a license to use the product.

Per the complaint, the GameStop website informs consumers that many of the listed video games are available to “buy online,” either in digital format or a new or pre-owned physical copy. Throughout the process, GameStop consistently uses the words “purchase,” “buy” and “bought” in reference to the digital formats of its games, which the filing claims misleadingly represents the nature of the products and implies that consumers will own an individual copy of the item, not merely a revocable license to access the game’s content.

At no point during the browsing or checkout process, the lawsuit alleges, does GameStop disclose to the consumer that a purchase of a digital version of a game is actually the purchase of a revocable license to access digital content.

The GameStop class action lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in California who purchased a digital “copy” of a video game from GameStop.

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