The client protection affiliation UFC Que Chooser filed a complaint for “programmed obsolescence” with the Public Prosecutor of Nanterre on September 22, 2020 against the video game giant Nintendo. UFC Que Chooser criticizes the Japanese firm for “selling controllers that are intended to break down before the end of the first year of use”. The nationwide every day press and the nationwide and worldwide specialised press broadly relayed this press launch (1), thus requiring Nintendo to defend itself and have interaction in an informational counter-offensive …
What is planned obsolescence?
Planned obsolescence (2) is a technique aimed toward lowering the lifespan of a product with a purpose to improve its substitute fee and thus trigger a new untimely buy. Do producers design merchandise with a intentionally restricted lifespan, with a purpose to encourage shoppers to re-equip themselves extra typically? It’s troublesome to say… On the different hand, everybody repeatedly observes, on a every day foundation, varied breakdowns of their high-tech tools or family home equipment, which happen roughly early in the life of the product. Too typically, repairing shouldn’t be value it, and the whole system goes at greatest for recycling, at worst for the trash.
Initially planned obsolescence was seen as a option to promote financial development and productiveness. In 1932, Bernard London (3), an American promoter defended the idea of a authorized obsolescence imposed by the authorities for client items with a purpose to stimulate and keep consumption in his guide ” Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence “. In 1942, Joseph Schumpeter, one of the nice economists of the final century, describes the phenomenon of “creative destruction” (4) by presenting innovation as each a supply of development and a issue of disaster.
In the Nineteen Fifties, industrial designer Steven Brooks (5) made programmed obsolescence fashionable via his design. Today, planned obsolescence tends to be denounced as prejudicial on the ecological and human degree. In France, the Hamon law published in the Official Gazette of March 18, 2014 (6) supplies a first legislative response to battle against planned obsolescence. Article 99 of the law on energy transition of August 17, 2015 present for a two-year jail sentence of 300,000 euros high quality (more likely to be elevated to five% of the common turnover evaluated over the final three years) for any producer / importer responsible of the offense of ‘planned obsolescence. Nowadays, it’s subsequently turning into a main societal subject at the crossroads of client legislation and environmental safety.
UFC Information Attack Strategy Que Choose
The UFC-What to choose is a non-profit affiliation totally devoted to assembly the wants of shoppers and defending their rights and pursuits via its campaigns, surveys, class actions and group shopping for. In November 2019 already, The UFC that Choose had denounced the planned obsolescence of game controllers and had given notice to Nintendo to restore defective controllers at no cost and had additionally accused Nintendo of invoicing 45 euros for his or her substitute. Since its industrial launch in 2017, the Nintendo Switch Video Console has been a actual industrial success. But two years after its launch, house owners of the video games console started to complain of a recurring and blocking failure of the controller inflicting issue in orienting the characters of the game or transferring via the menus.
According to UFC-Que Choisir, Nintendo was conscious of the malfunction and had recognized the causes. It must also be famous that a comparable collective motion had already been launched in July 2019 in the United States to level the finger at the origin of these failures. However alerted, the producer didn’t intervene to vary the design of its controllers and put an finish to this fragility.
UFC- Que Choisir additionally launched a name for testimonials from customers of the Switch console so as to have the ability to gather as a lot info as doable on the situations beneath which these failures appeared. With over 5,000 testimonials from dissatisfied users collected in less than 10 days, the UFC-Que Choisir was in a position to set up a number of observations. In specific, it has been established that 65% of client victims noticed this failure lower than a yr after buying the controllers and that the failure appeared regardless of the profile or the age of the participant, with lower than 5 hours per week. ‘use. 25% of shoppers even noticed the failure happen inside 6 months of buy, regardless of low console utilization.
Faced with the extent of the complaints, the UFC-Que Choisir commissioned an experience on a number of faulty controllers, roughly current, with a purpose to analyze the origin of this failure. Experts famous that adjustments had been made by Nintendo in the design of its controllers however not on the downside inflicting the failures. Determined that Nintendo overview the manufacture of its controllers to keep away from the nearly systematic look of this failure, the UFC-Que Choisir subsequently determined to create an electrical shock and subsequently filed a grievance on September 22, 2020 for planned obsolescence with the Public prosecutor of Nanterre.
Nintendo’s minimalist response
After Nintendo’s formal discover in November 2019, Nintendo France minimized the downside by highlighting “the extremely low number of cases” and the few studies of important malfunctions. It ought to be famous that Nintendo France had exceeded its industrial aims with 3.3 million consoles sold after its industrial launch and this didn’t subsequently encourage Nintendo France to make any efforts. Despite the whole lot, beneath the strain and given a massive quantity of complaints, the president of Nintendo France Philippe Lavoué had lastly introduced in the press and specifically in World organising an after-sales service in order that faulty levers might be simply changed even when the industrial guarantee has expired. Nintendo has not reviewed the manufacture of its controllers to keep away from the nearly systematic look of the failure and that is what is going to encourage UFC to file a grievance on September 22, 2020 with the Public Prosecutor in Nanterre.
Nintendo has not made any communication following the UFC What to Choose grievance. How to elucidate this inertia? Certainly the energy of Nintendo which lies in figuring out that every one avid gamers maintain shopping for. It is true that the Japanese firm noticed its turnover soar by 73% in comparison with the earlier yr, with 6.2 billion euros (7) … and its net profit tripled to 2.4 billion euros. Confined houses have been very fond of video video games. Nintendo bought 12.5 million Switch consoles throughout this era, or 80% greater than final yr. These outcomes have led Nintendo to revise upwards its forecasts for the fiscal yr ended March 30, 2021. Its anticipated web revenue will increase to three.6 billion euros, or 50% extra …
It remains to be too early to inform, however Nintendo’s picture dangers being critically tarnished by UFC-Que Choisir’s grievance to the Nanterre Public Prosecutor for planned obsolescence. Nintendo will in all probability should do higher than to supply free restore with a purpose to reply to this grievance… The investigation of this grievance and the court docket resolution will subsequently be notably attention-grabbing to comply with, in comparison with the very notion of planned obsolescence. It is attention-grabbing to see that the affiliation HOP which supports the decision of the UFC-What to choose had certainly filed the first grievance in the matter of planned obsolescence against Epson printers. HOP has been ready for a court docket resolution on this case for 3 years. However, you will need to stress that the HOP affiliation emerged victorious following its submitting of a grievance against Apple condemned. to a fine of 25 million euros following slowdowns and different malfunctions encountered by iPhones 6, 6S, SE and seven attributable to the replace of the working system.
Jerome Volclair
Additional sources
- Morgane Tual, “The UFC-Que Choisir files a complaint against Nintendo for planned obsolescence”, The world, September 22, 2020.
The Obs, September 22, 2020.
01net.com, “Faulty controllers of the Switch: the UFC-Que Choisir files a complaint against Nintendo”.
The voice of the North, “Nintendo: UFC- Que Choisir takes legal action on controller wear”
Marie Dealessandri, GamesIndustry.biz, September 22, 2020
