A US judge has dismissed a complaint against Nintendo over the Joy-Con drift issue, saying that the case cannot proceed as the plaintiffs had agreed to a clause in Nintendo’s End User License Agreement prohibiting lawsuits.
The federal judge in the Joy-Con drift lawsuit ruled that the End User License Agreement between Nintendo and the plaintiffs was with the parents, considered as the “de facto owners,” despite claims that minors who used the handheld device could not enter into such agreements. The judge’s decision indicated that the agreement was not with the children who actually played with the console.
“Drift” refers to an issue with the Joy-Con joysticks where they register movements without any actual physical input, causing cursors and reticles to drift on the screen. Ryan Diaz, who filed the class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, alleges that the company was aware of the drift problem as he and other customers had contacted them for repairs.
Despite this, Judge Zilly has temporarily halted the case until the arbitrator reaches a verdict. Once a verdict has been reached, the case may still come back to the courts. Nintendo and the customers who are seeking to sue the company must inform the courts about the result of the arbitration either 14 days after the verdict has been made or by December 31, 2020, whichever occurs first.
In September 2019, Ryan Diaz initiated a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, accusing the company of knowingly selling the Joy-Con controllers for the Switch with a drift problem, while presenting them as if they were without defects. Diaz also alleges that Nintendo charged customers for fixing the Joy-Cons with drift issues.
In November of last year, a federal judge ruled in favor of Nintendo in the case “Sanchez et. al. v. Nintendo of America”. Nintendo was successful in halting the case from proceeding as the Switch’s End User License Agreement (EULA) prohibits lawsuits and requires legal disputes to be resolved through arbitration between the parties involved.
Since the launch of the Switch console in 2017, customers have reported problems with the Joy-Con controllers, including instances where the control sticks become permanently misaligned, making games that require precision difficult or impossible to play using the affected controller.
The problem with the drift was more significant in the Switch Lite console since it did not have detachable controllers. If the console faced drift issues, it would become completely unusable, and the only options left were to repair it or purchase a new one.
Shuntaro Furukawa, the president of Nintendo, stated, “Regarding the Joy-Con, we express regret for any difficulties experienced by our customers.” The company is continually striving to improve its products, but because the Joy-Con is currently involved in a class-action lawsuit in the United States, they declined to comment on specific actions. Despite this, the overall response to the Switch has been favorable.
A recent study by UK consumer group, found evidence of fundamental design flaws with the Joy-Con of the Nintendo Switch.
The parents tried to argue that the children were not bound by the EULA because of their young age, however, the court ruled in favor of Nintendo, recognizing the parents as the lawful owners of the systems. This is not the first legal challenge that the company has faced, as it won a lawsuit against a ROM website and was granted $2.1 million in compensation last year.
The transition of the BBC channels, including regional and national versions of BBC One and BBC Two, as well as BBC ALBA and BBC Parliament, will take place from now until the end of February.
On March 12, Nintendo was victorious in a different dispute involving the Switch, as it was sued by peripheral company Gamevice for allegedly infringing on a patent they held for attachable handheld gaming controllers for mobile devices. However, the outcome was in favor of Nintendo.
The arbitration process involves the appointment of a neutral party to assist in resolving a dispute between the plaintiff and defendant. The objective is to reach a settlement without going to court. In the case of the Joy-Con drift lawsuit filed by Diaz, the lawyers from both sides will attempt to reach a resolution through the help of the arbitrator assigned to the case. The ruling by Judge Zilly stated that the arbitration clause in the Nintendo Switch license agreement would be upheld.
