Legal victory for Sony and Electronic Arts: The Austrian Supreme Court has finally ruled that loot boxes in the FIFA and FC series are not gambling. This brings an end to a legal battle that has been going on for years.
The ongoing debate about loot boxes in video games has been enriched by an important legal ruling: Austria’s Supreme Court has finally dismissed a lawsuit against Sony and Electronic Arts (EA). According to current local case law, the Ultimate Team mode in the FIFA and FC series does not constitute gambling subject to licensing requirements.
What exactly was the legal dispute about?
Between October 2017 and October 2021, the plaintiff spent nearly €20,000 on EA SPORTS soccer simulations. He used this real money to purchase FIFA Points, which he then used to buy FUT packs – i.e., loot boxes.
With his lawsuit, he wanted to obtain a refund. His lawyer and the litigation financier Padronus argued that this was gambling, for which neither Sony as the distributor of FIFA Points nor EA as the operator of the game servers in Austria had a license.
The Vienna Higher Regional Court had already ruled in favor of Sony and EA in 2024. Padronus appealed at the time, which is why the Supreme Court now had to decide. This is the highest court in Austria, so the ruling is no longer appealable.
How does the Supreme Court justify its ruling?
The Supreme Court first concluded that the process of purchasing loot boxes “cannot be assessed in isolation from the rest of the video game.” It cites three reasons for this:
First and foremost, the “objective purpose of using the digital content obtained in the video game.” Second, the “technical embedding of the purchase process in the video game.” And finally, the “lack of technical transferability of the digital content outside the video game.”
Examination of the “game in its entirety”
According to the OGH, “the game as a whole must be examined to determine whether it meets the criteria of the concept of gambling.” The definition used is: “A game of chance is a game in which the outcome depends exclusively or predominantly on chance.”
FIFA and FC do not meet this definition, “despite the random allocation of individual digital content from the loot boxes.”
The new ruling from Austria could be a small indication of the outcome of this review and further proceedings on the subject: in any case, it is unlikely to make the federal government take a stricter view of loot boxes.
The player can “control the course of the game with a probability suitable for success, through their own skills, namely their chosen tactics and strategy, as well as their dexterity in operating the controller, thus establishing a rational expectation of winning.”
What does this mean for Germany?
In Germany, too, loot boxes in video games and their legal framework have been the subject of debate for years. In November, the Bundesrat called on the federal government to examine regulation at the national and European level.
The legislature should assess whether publishers and developers are working transparently enough with regard to odds and probabilities of winning.
