A total of 40 illegal clauses in the PSN terms of use - that's quite a lot, and it's not the first time that Sony has been warned about it. What the company is getting ahead of, however, is the slow thoroughness of the courts, because a few months after the rejection of an appeal, the terms of use were changed and partially improved - a new lawsuit will probably be necessary.

The history

On October 1, 2017, Sony updated the PSN Terms of Service (see HERE ). There are many clauses there that are legally more than dubious, which is why Sony was warned by the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center in September 2018 (see HERE ).

For example, the terms of use state or stated that Sony can simply delete the PSN credit after 24 months if it has not been used. The parents' full liability for all costs incurred (for games or in-game purchases) by their underage children was also criticized - even though, from a purely legal perspective, they only have limited legal capacity.

The statutory right of withdrawal is also circumvented in the terms of use: As soon as you start a download, there is no longer any chance of a withdrawal, but this is not pointed out before the download begins.

However, since Sony did not respond, the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) sued the company in 2019. However, service of the lawsuit on August 13, 2019 was not accepted by Sony because it was not written in a language they understand - even though Sony operates internationally and also has many German-speaking customers.

In March 2020 (see HERE ), Sony's appeal was rejected, meaning the VKI's lawsuit remained standing.

The PSN Terms of Service Defendant

A total of 40 clauses of the terms of use valid at this time (i.e. at the beginning of 2020) have now been declared inadmissible in a ruling by the Vienna Higher Regional Court that is not yet legally binding (see HERE ). In addition to the points mentioned above (deletion of credit after 24 months, full liability of parents), the ban on transferring PSN credit and the automatic conversion of a free subscription into a paid subscription were also criticized.

Since other gaming platforms and online services have similar clauses in their terms of use, the ruling is likely to be groundbreaking not only in Austria, but also in other European countries.

Sony anticipated the verdict

As mentioned above, the lawsuit was against the terms of use that were valid at the time (see HERE HERE can also be found . But anyone who looks at the current terms of use (see HERE ) will be surprised, because they are structured completely differently and have been reworded.

For example, the clause “ 6. (ix) You must use the amounts added to your PSN balance within 24 months. “ moved and changed to “ 18.2. From the moment you top up your credit is valid for 36 months. “. So only 12 months were added, but this clause is still inadmissible!

Sony simply anticipated the judgment: After their appeal was rejected in March 2020, they completely changed the terms of use in October 2020 - even if the lawsuit becomes legally binding, it affects terms of use that are no longer valid.

The question now remains as to whether the current ruling can be applied analogously to the new terms of use or whether it needs to be reformulated due to the changes. A change is rather unlikely since, for example, the previously criticized non-existent right of withdrawal has now been clearly formulated in the new terms of use.


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