A Terms of Service clause seeking to prevent PlayStation 3 owners from suing Sony or entering into a class action lawsuit against the company has resulted in nothing less than a class action lawsuit against Sony.
GameSpot reports the lawsuit was filed against Sony in Northern California in late November. This was done by a man on behalf of PS3 owners who bought a PS3 and signed up for PSN before September, when the updated version of the Terms of Service were released.
Buried among the legalese these things consist of was a clause that would prevent console owners from being a part of a class action lawsuit against Sony. Sony's interest in doing this is understandable as it's trying to safeguard itself against losing money in a potential lawsuit. Since Sony made the move, both Electronic Arts and Microsoft have introduced similar wording in their respective Terms of Service, so it isn't as if Sony is alone in this and everyone else is a shining beacon of righteousness.
The lawsuit alleges unfair business practices as PS3 owners have to either forfeit their rights or their access to PSN. It's also pointed out that the clause was buried in the Terms of Service, which were not made readily available online, and that the only means for opting out of that clause is to mail a physical letter within 30 days of agreeing to the ToS.
The backlash that emerged after the new ToS were released led to Sony pointing to a Supreme Court ruling as the precedent for it being allowed to do something like this. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that ATT was legally allowed to include a clause in employees' contracts stating they could not take part in a class action lawsuit against the company.
An unrelated lawsuit against Sony was recently dismissed by a judge. The removal of the PlayStation 3's Other OS feature, which allowed an operating system such as Linux to be installed, resulted in a lawsuit that hit a snag earlier this year when a judge dismissed almost every one of its claim.
"While it cannot be concluded as a matter of law at this juncture that Sony could, without legal consequence, force its customers to choose either to forego installing the software update or to lose access to the other OS feature, the present allegations of the complaint largely fail to state a claim," U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg wrote in February, according to the Courthouse News Service. "Accordingly, with the exception of one count, the motion to dismiss will be granted, with leave to amend."
That opportunity to amend was taken advantage of, but to no avail, as Seeborg dismissed the final claim earlier this month.
One would hope this new lawsuit doesn't meet a similar fate.
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