In today’s article, we will cover the Fortnite lawsuit 2022, its accusations, background, and responses to it.
Parents in Quebec have sued Fortnite’s creators, claiming that their children and many others have become hooked to the game to the point where they will forgo meals and showers in order to play more.
A judge on the Canadian Supreme Court has given the go-ahead for a lawsuit against Epic Games, alleging that the company’s game is illegally addicting youngsters, causing them to disregard their daily responsibilities in order to play more.
Fortnite lawsuit 2022 explained
Three parents came up to Judge Sylvain Lussier and told her that their children had stopped eating, sleeping, and taking showers due to their addiction to Fortnite. In response to that Judge Sylvain Lussier said: “The court concludes that there is a serious issue to be argued, supported by sufficient and specific allegations as to the existence of risks or even dangers arising from the use of Fortnite,”
The parent’s legal representative quickly equated Fortnite to tobacco. They asserted that the “tobacco motion” is the main foundation of their lawsuit against Epic Games. In terms of what we were arguing, our motion was greatly influenced by the tobacco motion, according to attorney Alessandra Esposito Chartrand.
The judge concluded the last session by saying that Fortnite cannot be compared to tobacco. The judge added that while there was no convincing evidence to support the notion that the developers purposefully created an addictive game, Epic Games was aware of its addictive potential.
“The court finds that there is no evidence for these allegations of the deliberate creation of an addictive game. This does not exclude the possibility that the game is in fact addictive and that its designer and distributor are presumed to know it.”
Judge Sylvain Lussier
Twitter users are confused by the lawsuit. There are thousands of Tweets defending that Epic Games just made a good game and that’s parents’ responsibility to limit their children’s time on the game. Twitter user @ayet_ tweeted that:
i don't play fortnite but basically epic is being sued for making a good game? ? but of course it's not the parents' fault?
— Aye ? (@ayet_) December 11, 2022
This isn’t Epic Games’ first lawsuit case
The case Epic Games v. Apple concerns Apple’s actions in the iOS App Store and was filed in August 2020 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In particular, Epic Games contested Apple’s prohibitions against allowing in-app purchases through channels other than the App Store. Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, had previously contested Apple’s 30% income cut on each App Store purchase and wished to either circumvent Apple with their game Fortnite or have Apple take a smaller portion.
On August 13, 2020, Epic made changes to Fortnite on purpose to get around the App Store’s payment structure. This caused Apple to remove the game from the App Store, which prompted Epic to file its lawsuit. Apple defended itself against Epic’s lawsuit and launched a countersuit, alleging that Epic willfully violated the terms of its agreement with Apple in order to prod the company into action.
From May 3 through May 24, 2021, the trial took place. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declared in favor of Apple on nine out of ten counts in the first stage of the lawsuit in September 2021, but she ruled against Apple on its anti-steering policy under the California Unfair Competition Law. Rogers forbade Apple from preventing app developers from informing customers of alternative payment methods. The decision has been challenged by Epic.
The same day, Epic also filed a second complaint against Google, Epic Games v. Google, which contests Google’s actions on the Android Google Play app store. Google removed Fortnite after the update for a similar reason as Apple. Google has made it clear that its lawsuit is not subject to the same legal restrictions as Apple’s.
Response of Epic Games to Fortnite lawsuit 2022
In response, Epic Games rejected the suit’s legality by saying:
“Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week, and require parental permission before purchases are made,”
“We plan to fight this in court. We believe the evidence will show that this case is meritless.”
Thank you for reading our writing on the Fortnite lawsuit 2022. Epic Games, which was mentioned by big names such as Apple and Google in lawsuits before, has become the target of parents this time.
