UK Consumers have rights over you

 

The UK is considering a set of laws that give consumers rights over the providers of digital stuff. These new consumer rights will blow a hole through EULAs and side step a whole mess of intellectual property law. All UK consumers of ‘digital content’ would have these rights irrespective of where it’s provided from, the rights cannot be contracted out of, and the remedies apply to content providers where ever they are.

In short, if you are a game company based anywhere selling to the UK - you need to pay attention.

This is a consultation so none of it might happen. Actually that’s not true. The first option will happen as an EU law has been passed that gives consumers greater rights and this includes the digital domain. 

This is a consultation so most of it might not happen. But if it does, this is what’s being proposed:

Define stuff

• Digital content – everything from games to MP3s
• Related services – a service you must have to run some content and have no option which service to use e.g. a streaming service
• Enabling services – a service that you need to consume some content but you do have a choice e.g. an ISP

Ensure that stuff is of reasonable quality

This is the big change. The proposal suggest that when a consumer gets a digital thing they should have a reasonable expectation of what that thing is. Just like any other good or service they would buy in the UK. 

Seller has go to have the rights to sell it to you – so when Amazon removed Orwell’s 1984 from people’s kindles, that was their bad and the consumes should have got compensation 

Is  what it says it is – so if I buy something and THEN find out I need some specific player for it, that’s your bad not mine as you should have told me.

Uninterrupted use – so you know when Sony patched the PS/3 so you could not longer run Linux on it. Yeh, they can’t do that any more, as they sold a device that ran Linux and that’s what consumers paid for. The consultation does note that things change, and that’s fine, you just can’t suddenly remove valued features.

It’s basically gotta work – here things get tricky, but basically UK Gov are saying that there’s a reasonable expectation that, allowing for the usual bugs, digitial stuff has gotta be a certain quality 

Paid for version is the same as the trial – ok, the trial might be limited but you can’t have a demo that’s substantially different from what people pay for.

And just in case you thought that some things might not full under this, the documents give all kinds of examples:

• A game that needs an online service for authentication but that service is down because of demand – that’s covered
• Open Source – if you sell it, that’s covered too
• Stuff we are just giving away – if the consumer gave you anything of value in return, even information about themselves, that’s covered
• Ahhh, but you did not buy it, you used a virtual currency and that has no value – nope, UK gov covered that one too. 
• Ah ha ha, we put in the EULA that you agree to wave you rights as a condition of playing our game – don’t bother, it’s not worth the paper it’s not printed on, these rights are not subject to contract. 

Remedies 

The rights against providers that customers may have are:

• Replace or repair
• Reduced purchase price or refund 

In conculsion 

So, wow, the UK government are treating digital stuff just like other stuff. No EULA or IP trump cards. I'm sure there are a lot of happy consumers out there, but industry, how happy are you? Unreasonable burden on business? Have Koster's rights of the Avatar finally come to pass?

Note the full document is over 250 pages long, so for a very detailed analysis see the summary over at the Virtual Policy Network: http://www.virtualpolicy.net/ukcontentrights.html

tVPN is also putting together a civil society / academic response on Google Docs.

Your local trade association might be doing on too – see UKIE in the UK and ESA in the US. 

The full consulation can be found here: http://www.bis.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-rationalising-modernising-consumer-law

 

Comments

[Leo]

1.

Caveat: I do not live in the UK. However, I can't say I have much sympathy for companies/associations that will likely protest these laws. No doubt it will be more expensive for them, but as I see it digital product companies have had their way with consumers for too long. Physical product companies have found ways to deal with similar laws (some well, others badly), so there is no reason to believe that digital product companies cannot. At very least the proposed laws may reduce BOHICA moments for the consumer.

[Gabriel]

2.

> Stuff we are just giving away – if the consumer gave you anything of
> value in return, even information about themselves, that’s covered

What rights do customers get in this case? Can a company choose to just "refund" the customer's $0, or is the company required to relinquish the information?

[Stabs]

3.

"This is a consolation so most of it might not happen."

While accurate, this is perhaps a typo. After all, it's not much consolation.

[Ren]

4.

Stabs,
Ha. I corrected the typo now. Point taken though.
ren

[Ren]

5.

Gabriel says:

>> Stuff we are just giving away – if the consumer gave you anything of value in return, even information about themselves, that’s covered
>What rights do customers get in this case?

It's not that precise. I presume 'all the other ones'. So if there is a trial of something and you have to sign up giving personal info for the full version, then the trial must have been representative. Possibly the fact that this may be by law will provided a basis for other claims against the company. Or maybe data would have to be give up (actually EU level recommendations might handle some of that: http://www.virtualpolicy.net/policy-bites-eu-commissions-proposed-data-protections.html)

[David Grundy]

6.

Given that recently Steam/Valve, in effect, just waved two fingers at me and and told me to feck off when I was (in my view) mis-sold a broken product (your point "It’s basically gotta work".. well not Cities 2012 XL it seems...) when I wanted to exercise my rights under the UK "Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000", I have very little, indeed, none at all, sympathy for the industry in this instance.

Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that I view the current attitude of US companies (Valve in particular) selling to European customers and ignoring the country specific consumer legislation as atrocious bad business practices (and if you think UK country specific consumer legislation is harsh, you should read some of the German consumer protection laws).

I hope this legislation hits them hard in the only thing they obviously care about; their bottom line, and ensures better, and more ethical, business practices with consumers.