Legal moves are being made against the practice of lootbox monetization against one of the largest targets possible. A class action complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple is claiming that the company is complicit in promoting gambling by selling games on its App Store that have lootboxes — a violation of California law under section D.
The complaint directly targets Apple as a result of the company getting a slice of the profit from lootbox sales. “Over the last four years [Apple’s] App Store games have brought in billions of dollars, even though the vast majority of the games are free to download,” reads part of the complaint. “Dozens (if not hundreds) of App Store games rely on some form of Loot Box or similar gambling mechanism to generate billions of dollars, much of it from kids.” The suit also points out that while Apple now requires App Store games to share lootbox odds, it doesn’t point out on its storefront which games have the monetization scheme.
The class action seeks restitution and disgorgement of the money collected via lootbox purchases, an injunction against further violations, and court fees.
