When it comes to consumer protection, Europe is far ahead of the United States, with strong consumer and refunds laws.
And now Nintendo is in trouble in Europe, because the Norwegian Consumer Council published a report saying that Nintendo was the worst video game distributor when it comes to refunding digital sales, particularly refunds of pre-orders.
Nintendo was behind competitors like Sony and Microsoft, who have more consumer-friendly refund policies.
Here’s what the Norwegians said:
“[Nintendo] plainly states that all purchases are final. According to the right of withdrawal laid down in the consumer rights directive, such terms are illegal.”
And they also advise against pre-ordering games:
“The video game industry uses incentives such as exclusive in-game content or other rewards in order to encourage consumers to pre-order games. However, pre-ordering could result in paying a lot of money for a product that turns out to be a disappointment. For most digital video game platforms, there are no possibilities to get your money back after the release date,”
