Belgium Conducting Criminal Investigation into EA
The Brussel’s public prosecutor’s office announced that it is conducting a criminal investigation into Electronic Arts (EA), according to Metro, a Belgium newspaper. The investigation comes after EA continues to offer loot boxes in FIFA 18 and 19.
In April of 2018, the Belgian government declared loot boxes are a form of gambling and therefore illegal. The Belgian Gaming Commission determined that FIFA 18, NBA 2k18, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s loot boxes are a game of chance and so are subject to the new gambling law. Failure to comply with this law may lead to fines of 800,000 euros and up to five years in prison.
Belgium gave the gaming companies time to eliminate the loot boxes from their games by August. Blizzard, Valve and 2K Games all complied to the Belgian gambling law, as they’ve removed the sale of loot boxes in Belgium. Electronic Arts were the only company not to follow.
The loot boxes in EA’s FIFA are called packs. There are four different levels of packs in FIFA; they are bronze, silver, gold, and promo. Within the bronze, silver, and gold pack tiers there are two different primary packs – regular and premium. The regular pack comes with only one rare card, while the premium pack features three rare cards. The only thing that’s stated when you purchase packs in FIFA is how many cards you’ll receive, at least how many of one tier, and how many rare cards you’ll receive.
The CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, has stated before that company has no interest in stopping loot boxes in their video games. According to Wilson, loot boxes aren’t about gambling, because players know exactly how many objects they’ll get in a loot box. Loot boxes are expected to be in FIFA 19 in Belgium.
The Belgian Gaming Commission disagrees with Wilson. “Players are tempted and misguided, and none of the protective measures for gambling are being applied,” Belgian Gaming Commission Director Peter Naessens said. The Gaming Commission says that loot boxes are an illegal game of chance because players don’t know what the box contains when purchased. A warrant has been issued to EA, and the Gaming Commission wants the developer to be sued as well.
Although EA is the only company to be investigated, they aren’t the only company fighting the ruling from the Belgium Gaming Commission. 2K Sports released a statement encouraging their Belgian userbase to contact their local government officials to offer their opinion on the ruling.
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