Coordinated by the European Commission, the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) has launched an enforcement action against Star Stable Entertainment AB to ensure a safer, more transparent experience for players of the Star Stable Online game.
Yeah the 14 days is typical in EU, you can return anything, no questions asked. But in Digital market i am not sure if it is followed (imagine buying a Steam game and tell them after 1 week to return it, while you burned 40 hours).
so they have not handicapped themselves, I do not know if they’ll bother to enforce but it sure looks like they have the power to and that’s very appreciated. So let us go down the list!
The action is against Star Stable Entertainment AB. So a company only (Swedish) and not in general, but this is how it starts normally and after months you see a law ready to voted. So yeah enforcement in this level may not happen for all companies.
Nikki has many currencies, which i found a bit overwhelming when i started the game. I always thought that games should always sell one currency with real money and based on that you can decide. Nikki does partially what EU asks, you need the stars to make them diamonds, but they sell all of these packets (the Treasure and the Featured in the shop) with money or the Battle-pass which are as if you buy other currencies (blinks, crystals etc) with money.
So according to EU they should only sell clothes and stars, nothing else. Will we see.
The article posted is specifically about them taking action against Star Stable Entertainment AB, yes, but it also says
In addition, the CPC Network is presenting today key principles to help the gaming industry comply with the EU consumer protection rules related to in-game virtual currencies.
The rules aren’t just for Star Stable Entertainment, and I understood these consumer protection rules to be rules that already exist. Is my understanding incorrect, given you have said “see a law ready to voted”? Is this proposed law that is not yet on the books? Is this a new law that already exists and we’re just starting to see how much it’ll be enforced, with Star Stable Entertainment as an early example?
So the EU is a bit complicated. Because EU is not a country, normally they put Directives so the countries must integrate to their laws and enforce them. BUT there are some laws that are binding for all, like the DMA (Digital Markets Act).
After some digging i found that CPC acts as an enforcer and that Star Stable game must violated the laws, that are already on play. So for Infinity Nikki, they maybe already following the laws (because is a new game), and do nothing, or they will need to adjust after this incident. I think they are clear about the prices, only these packages maybe are on the grey zone.
Yeah the 14 days is typical in EU, you can return anything, no questions asked. But in Digital market i am not sure if it is followed (imagine buying a Steam game and tell them after 1 week to return it, while you burned 40 hours).
The action is against Star Stable Entertainment AB. So a company only (Swedish) and not in general, but this is how it starts normally and after months you see a law ready to voted. So yeah enforcement in this level may not happen for all companies.
Nikki has many currencies, which i found a bit overwhelming when i started the game. I always thought that games should always sell one currency with real money and based on that you can decide. Nikki does partially what EU asks, you need the stars to make them diamonds, but they sell all of these packets (the Treasure and the Featured in the shop) with money or the Battle-pass which are as if you buy other currencies (blinks, crystals etc) with money.
So according to EU they should only sell clothes and stars, nothing else. Will we see.
The article posted is specifically about them taking action against Star Stable Entertainment AB, yes, but it also says
The rules aren’t just for Star Stable Entertainment, and I understood these consumer protection rules to be rules that already exist. Is my understanding incorrect, given you have said “see a law ready to voted”? Is this proposed law that is not yet on the books? Is this a new law that already exists and we’re just starting to see how much it’ll be enforced, with Star Stable Entertainment as an early example?
So the EU is a bit complicated. Because EU is not a country, normally they put Directives so the countries must integrate to their laws and enforce them. BUT there are some laws that are binding for all, like the DMA (Digital Markets Act).
After some digging i found that CPC acts as an enforcer and that Star Stable game must violated the laws, that are already on play. So for Infinity Nikki, they maybe already following the laws (because is a new game), and do nothing, or they will need to adjust after this incident. I think they are clear about the prices, only these packages maybe are on the grey zone.