Judge: Nintendo doesn’t have to give customers a chance to cancel pre-orders

Nintendo is under no obligation to provide an opportunity to cancel pre-orders. That has been determined by a German court in a lawsuit that German and Norwegian consumer organizations had filed against the Japanese game company.

The Frankfurt court finds that pre-ordering a game is equivalent to signing a two-phase contract, Pressfire.no reports. That is a two-part agreement, with some parts not being clear until later, despite the parties having previously concluded an agreement. That is why the right of withdrawal does not apply to pre-orders of games, says the judge. It concerns orders, where a device pre-downloads the game, but where a player can only get started on the release date.

The German consumer ombudsman disagrees with the judge and is appealing the decision. The appeal is expected to take at least a year and a half, during which time Nintendo will be allowed to continue with its current trading practice, where pre-orders are non-cancellable.

The Norwegian and German consumer organizations filed a lawsuit after they concluded that Nintendo is violating consumer protection rules with the practice. They believe that the product is only delivered on the day that customers can play the game and not when the file is delivered without being able to play. Therefore, customers should be able to cancel until they can play the game.