Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

[mursht]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

From EULA:
This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors
“as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited
to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose are disclaimed.

From page 23 of your manual, under the bold NOTICE:
Electronic Arts reserves the right to make improvements in the product described in this manual at anytime and without notice.

Those two paragraphs will shoot down any such lawsuit. :p

touche...

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Lets get crazy then. How about this? Their improvements did not meet the needs of the consumers. BAM!!

In this day in time thats all you need to get some real improvements. Lets run this by EA in see how they like it.

[2(x)ist]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

From EULA:
This software is provided by the copyright holders and contributors
“as is” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited
to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
purpose are disclaimed.

From page 23 of your manual, under the bold NOTICE:
Electronic Arts reserves the right to make improvements in the product described in this manual at anytime and without notice.

Those two paragraphs will shoot down any such lawsuit. :p

Damn them and there legal mumbo jumbo

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

There is always a way around such things. Always..

[JarEme]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Like pointing out that you can't read that stuff until after you buy the game and that most consumer protection statutes say you cannot disclaim consumer protection.

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Oh yeah I like you lol. We can go places.. in court that is. See that is how you use that crap against companies. So come on guys. Lets pitch this to EA and see how they respond.

[Edwood]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Making Improvements is not the same as adding Advertised Features at a later date.

The key is if EA had all those missing features advertised on their retail packaging.

Which, BTW, is not listed there. I just looked at my BF2 box, it's not there.

So basically it seems that online you can lie all you want. Seems that libel doesn't count online.

-Ed

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Okay I just found this out.

Many advertisers feel that they have safeguarded themselves against deceptive advertising by providing money-back guarantees, warranties, and by adding disclaimers to ads.

According to the FTC this is not accurate. FTC noted that "a money-back guarantee is no defense to a charge of deceptive advertising. A money back guarantee does not compensate the consumer for the often considerable amount of time and expense incident to returning a major-ticket item and obtaining a replacement"

Disclaimers, accurate text or small print do not remedy the effect of a false headline either. The FTC has ruled that many reasonable consumers may only read the headline and be mislead or deceived by the advertisement, therefore, the headline must also make sure that it complies with fair advertising standards (Federal Trade Commission, 1998 [on-line]).

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

So this means that their legal crap is 100% useless. They cheated us and the law says so. Victory!

This also means that no matter how EA puts it they have cheated us and no legal blah blah can excuse them from their actions placed against us.

[glasseye]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

So come on guys. Lets pitch this to EA and see how they respond.

yeah. sure thing. lead the way, ace.

[The Question]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

yeah. sure thing. lead the way, ace.

Hey, I lay it down you guys can smack it down. Understand?

I did not choose the name The Question just so. I live up to it baby!

[={SOC}= Sniper]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

They have the screenshots on the BF2 box b4 it was released.

[imported_Carwash]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

i heard the hovercraft is still in BF2 .. hidden ..

[Edwood]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Okay I just found this out.

Many advertisers feel that they have safeguarded themselves against deceptive advertising by providing money-back guarantees, warranties, and by adding disclaimers to ads.

According to the FTC this is not accurate. FTC noted that "a money-back guarantee is no defense to a charge of deceptive advertising. A money back guarantee does not compensate the consumer for the often considerable amount of time and expense incident to returning a major-ticket item and obtaining a replacement"

Disclaimers, accurate text or small print do not remedy the effect of a false headline either. The FTC has ruled that many reasonable consumers may only read the headline and be mislead or deceived by the advertisement, therefore, the headline must also make sure that it complies with fair advertising standards (Federal Trade Commission, 1998 [on-line]).

Doesn't matter, as it probably applies to an old version of the law, it will probably only apply to print ads and print on the retail box.

Apparently, online press releases, and specs don't count.

So, if you can find something in a print ad or written on the actual retail box somewhere stating features they did not include in the retail release, I'd say you would have a case, otherwise, it's just a waste of time.

-Ed

[Arkasha]

Re: Has EA broken any consumer protection laws?

Lets get crazy then. How about this? Their improvements did not meet the needs of the consumers. BAM!!

Says who?

Think about it. Think how many thousands and thousands of copies were sold -- do you really think everyone who bought the game thinks the patches were not an improvement?