A legal action has been taken by ANCED against several gaming companies, including Activision Blizzard, EA Games, Nintendo, Riot Games, Ubisoft, and Valve Corporation, regarding the presence of loot box features in their esports games. The lawsuits have been filed in Brazil’s District Court for Children and Youth in the Distrito Federal. Platforms hosting these games, such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Sony, are also included in the lawsuits. The aim is to ban the use of loot boxes and seek indemnities of BRL19.5bn (£2.45bn/€2.83bn/$3.41bn) for collective and individual moral damages.
ANCED argues that loot boxes in video games are considered gambling products according to Brazilian law, drawing comparisons with roulette and casino games. The organization criticizes the use of visual and auditory effects, such as glowing on-screen animations and special sounds, used when opening loot boxes. It claims that these effects create a sense of reward, particularly affecting children and adolescents who are more susceptible. ANCED highlights that countries like the Netherlands and Belgium have already deemed this practice as abusive and outlawed it.
In 2018, Belgium’s Gaming Commission ruled that loot boxes in video games violated their gambling legislation. As a result, EA was directed to remove loot boxes from its popular football simulator, Fifa, in the Netherlands in October of that year. Other countries, including the UK, Sweden, and recently Spain, are also considering banning these in-game mechanisms.
Apple faced a lawsuit in June last year, accused of promoting gambling products to children due to the availability of games with loot box features on its App Store.
