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Following Belgium, the Netherlands will ban loot boxes

Other European countries have made up their minds fight with loot boxes. They are going after Belgium this current mess that is likened to gambling and earns video game companies an incredible amount of money, banned in the Netherlands.

Six Dutch political parties have come out in favor of a proposal to completely ban the sale of the infamous loot boxes. The bill states that loot boxes are a form of gambling. According to politicians, children should be manipulated and encouraged to buy them.

Belgium already banned loot boxes in 2018. If the proposal is supported by the majority of MPs, the Netherlands will be the next country with a complete ban. The six political parties mentioned constitute the parliamentary majority.

Let’s recall that Dutch politicians had a bitter dispute about loot boxes with Electronic Arts back in 2020. The bone of contention was the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) packages, which are an integral part of the FIFA football series.

Although EA was initially fined, after resistance, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling, stating that loot boxes do not always violate Dutch gambling laws. Still, Blizzard in Belgium and the Netherlands nespustil Diablo Immortal which daily it generates averaging over a million dollars in microtransactions.

SPAIN WANTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN AND ADULTS

In Spain, they will not be so radical, they only intend to regulate loot boxes and the change in the law is prohibit persons under 18 years of age. According to local media, from the beginning of 2024.

The law on the regulation of so-called “random reward mechanisms” has entered the hearing and public information phase. Among other things, this phase allows citizens to express their opinion on the contemplated law.

Through the law, politicians in Spain want to force companies that have these mechanisms in their games to provide them more precise information about how they work and what rewards the player can get. Plus, the law prohibits the broadcast of advertisements for loot boxes, crypto-currencies and NFTs on radio and television during the day, the space will only be in the time slot from 1:00 to 5:00.

FIGHT LOOT BOXES ON MULTIPLE FRONTS

Recently into the fight against loot boxes involved 20 consumer European organizations, including the Czech representation. Together, these groups take coordinated action and petition the authorities to regulate loot boxes.


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