The Nintendo Switch when it was offered in 2017. – TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP
After the grievance filed by UFC-What to Choose against Nintendo France
last september, the affiliation introduced on Wednesday that it was becoming a member of the European Bureau of Consumers’ Unions (BEUC) to set off the European “external alert” mechanism, and make clear this recurring failure of the levers of the
Switch, which fits past our borders. This is the well-known “Joy-Con Drift”.
Nearly 25,0000 testimonials in Europe
“With more than 9,100 consumer testimonials attesting to the defect of their Switch console controllers, the UFC-Que Choisir filed a complaint last year against Nintendo for planned obsolescence,” the affiliation remembers in a press launch. However, since then, different Belgian, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Slovak, Slovenian and Greek shopper associations have launched requires testimonies. Almost 25,000 European customers have come ahead, producing comparable testimonials.
According to Que Choose, the blackout causes “unexpected phantom movements, which prevent consumers from using their game consoles properly.” The group evoked two causes on the time of the grievance in France: “premature wear of the printed circuits, and a sealing defect which causes a worrying amount of debris and dust within the joystick”.
An alert for misleading advertising and marketing practices
In January 2020, the director of Nintendo France provided to restore faulty controllers freed from cost, even when they had been not coated by the guarantee. But in keeping with the French affiliation, the fundamental downside has not been resolved. Concretely, BEUC will launch an alert to the European Commission and nationwide shopper safety authorities through the exterior alert mechanism, for misleading, aggressive and unfair industrial practices.
The worldwide action goals to encourage the launch of a European investigation and to drive Nintendo to settle these untimely failures. This, by repairing faulty controllers freed from cost and by warning of the restricted lifespan of those controllers, provides Que Choisir, which as soon as once more calls on customers affected by the failure to come back ahead.
