After examining real money currencies, European organization says what many players have long wanted

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The European Consumer Organisation has published a report on the topics of microtransactions and real-money currencies. MeinMMO summarises the most important findings for you.

What was the EU organisation’s investigation about? Half of all Europeans between the ages of 6 and 64 play games. Three out of four children are said to play games regularly. This is difficult because the games industry is becoming increasingly prone to commercial practices to which children, among others, can be particularly susceptible.

Specifically, the report refers to the use of loot boxes, aggressive advertising, the direct request to children to spend money, and the implementation of real money currencies. The report by “The European Consumer Organisation” (BEUC for short) looks in detail at how dangerous and questionable real money currencies in games are.

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Current regulations are not sufficient

What are the organization’s findings? According to the report (via beuc.eu), although there is EU consumer law that fully applies to real-money currencies in games and apps in all EU member states, it is poorly enforced in many countries.

Real money currencies are considered problematic by BEUC for the following reasons:

  • Because there are often several different currencies in games and the prices for real money currency cannot be directly transferred to the things that can be bought with the real money currency, the player loses any sense of how much the real money currency is actually worth. Experts speak of unfair and misleading methods.
  • While online purchases with real money often involve the “pain of paying” principle (it hurts to spend), many consumers lose this negative appeal when they use virtual currency. This is exacerbated by the fact that many microtransactions in games only involve small amounts.
  • When purchasing with virtual currency, mechanisms similar to those used in gambling (use of chips) come into play.
  • The digital environment supports instant payment without further thought.

    • In summary, it can be said that the providers deliberately use psychological mechanisms to extract (usually small) amounts from the consumers’ wallets as often as possible, causing them to spend more than in other games or than they actually want to.

    More on the topic

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    What are BEUC’s demands? The European Commission should consider the possibility of completely banning the use of real-money currencies in games and mobile apps, the organization recommends.

    Since BEUC itself knows that this is unlikely to happen, it has made further recommendations, the most important of which are:

  • Ban on real money currencies for games and apps for children (under 18 years).
  • Stricter transparency requirements for games and apps with real money currencies (e.g. displaying costs in the respective local currency).
  • Stronger protection measures for children and stronger regulation of the measures (for example, through the option to disable real money currencies and microtransactions).
  • Possibility to set a password to avoid unwanted transactions.
  • Consumers should be able to play video games without having their economic behavior influenced by an algorithm, with the most privacy-friendly mode enabled “by default.”
  • Statutory warranty rights and the right of withdrawal should also apply to purchases made with real money currencies.
  • Clauses that exclude refund claims should be declared unfair.

    • Who is the BEUC? The European Consumer Organisation is an umbrella group representing a total of 44 independent consumer protection organisations from 31 countries and is supported by the European Union. The BEUC report goes directly to the European Commission and to the network of various consumer protection organisations. You can find out more at beuc.eu.

    What is the situation in Germany? Although many games specifically use the psychological mechanisms of gambling to encourage their players to spend money, games are not considered gambling in our country. The State Treaty on Gambling concluded in February 2020 states (via game.de):

    “The game’s statement takes the opportunity to clearly differentiate the games industry from the gambling industry. There is a clear boundary between the two economic sectors. Unlike games, the focus of gambling is the potential winnings of money or other valuables.”

    Every gaming fan should keep their fingers crossed that this assessment will change in the future, also as a result of the new report from BEUC. The following report from last year shows how dangerous gambling can be: 15-year-old becomes addicted to gambling through Twitch, loses 10,000 euros, warns others about his mistake

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