An American judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Nintendo for its Joy-Con drift issues, saying the case cannot proceed because the owners agreed to Nintendo’s End User License Agreement (EULA) that “disallows lawsuits”.
Despite attempts to argue that underaged children – who used the handheld system – cannot enter into the agreement, the federal judge ultimately ruled that the agreement was with the “de facto owners”, the parents, and not the children who actually used the console.
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Consequently, the judge dismissed the action, stating that the parents should have entered legal arbitration rather than a lawsuit, as instructed by the EULA (thanks, NE).
Several class-action lawsuits have been filed against Nintendo, including players experiencing Joy-Con drift on the then-newly released Nintendo Switch Lite.
Last year, Nintendo gave its first formal apology for the continued Joy-Con problems faced by Nintendo Switch owners, but it wasn’t enough to stop the legal action coming from affected parties right across the world.
“Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologise for any trouble caused to our customers,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said at the time. “We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would like to refrain from responding about any specific actions.”
A major study from UK consumer group Which? recently found evidence that the Nintendo Switch’s infamous Joy-Con drift is likely caused by a mechanical fault, pointing to fundamental design flaws.
