American judge dismisses Switch Joy-Con drift lawsuit
Cut adrift.
An American judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Nintendo for its Joy-Con drift issues, saying the case cannot proceed because the owners agreed to Nintendo's End User License Agreement (EULA) that "disallows lawsuits".
Despite attempts to argue that underaged children - who used the handheld system - cannot enter into the agreement, the federal judge ultimately ruled that the agreement was with the "de facto owners", the parents, and not the children who actually used the console.
Consequently, the judge dismissed the action, stating that the parents should have entered legal arbitration rather than a lawsuit, as instructed by the EULA (thanks, NE).
Several class-action lawsuits have been filed against Nintendo, including players experiencing Joy-Con drift on the then-newly released Nintendo Switch Lite.
Last year, Nintendo gave its first formal apology for the continued Joy-Con problems faced by Nintendo Switch owners, but it wasn't enough to stop the legal action coming from affected parties right across the world.
"Regarding the Joy-Con, we apologise for any trouble caused to our customers," Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said at the time. "We are continuing to aim to improve our products, but as the Joy-Con is the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the United States and this is still a pending issue, we would like to refrain from responding about any specific actions."
A major study from UK consumer group Which? recently found evidence that the Nintendo Switch's infamous Joy-Con drift is likely caused by a mechanical fault, pointing to fundamental design flaws.