Publishers have been scrambling to add no class action lawsuit clauses to their terms and conditions of late due to the damage they can do to a bank balance. EA is suffering just such a lawsuit at the moment, and the settlement payout the company agreed to has just tripled.
The class action lawsuit dates back to 2008 when two gamers filed against EA over the 5 year exclusive agreement the publisher had with the National Football League. The agreement saw EA become the only company allowed to publish NFL games for five years. The gamers argued the deal created a monopoly and therefore inflated prices for the games.
Years of litigation followed with EA eventually agreeing last year to pay gamers $6.79 per last gen (PS2, GameCube, Xbox, PC) title purchased carrying an Arena Football, Madden NFL, or NCAA Football title. Gamers who bought similar current gen console titles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) were due $1.95 per game. The settlement covered all games released between January 1, 2005 and June 21, 2012, and EA put aside $27 million to cover the claims.
Now those compensation amounts have been tripled after a modification to the settlement due to there being fewer claimants than expected. So if you are part of the class action lawsuit (Pecover v. Electronic Arts), you will now receive $20.37 per qualifying last gen game and $5.85 per qualifying current gen game. So if you loved your NFL sports games, this could end up being quite a big payout.
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