Square Enix sued over allegedly concealed FFXI fees

by Xav de Matos { Jun 26th 2009 at 4:00AM }

According to the Courthouse News Service, a federal class action lawsuit has been brought against Square Enix for allegedly lying or "concealing its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions and other things that should have been filly disclosed at points of purchase" for the MMO Final Fantasy XI.

Plaintiff Esther Leong of San Francisco is seeking more than $5 million for what she alleges to be "unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment."

It's unclear how Square Enix has hidden the subscription nature of Final Fantasy XI from potential (or ongoing) players. The game's official website (above) clearly states a monthly fee is required to play the online-only title, when clicking a tab labeled "Monthly Fees" -- as well as listing the subscription-based nature of the game on all retail packaging. Fair warning from the far-flung future to any and all involved in this hilariously moronic suit, Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO too. Anticipate a subscription ... or at least prep for another lawsuit.

Update: LGJ columnist Mark Methenitis takes a closer look at the class action on his Law of the Game blog.

[Via 1UP]

Tags: class-action, final-fantasy-xi, lawsuit, learn-to-read, mmo, subscription

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Mike @ Jun 26th 2009 4:05AM

Some people are just too stoopid.

deanb @ Jun 26th 2009 4:29AM

@Sean - that was tottaly uncalled for. You should be banned for just been so off-topic never mind been anti-semantic.

CtrlBurn @ Jun 26th 2009 8:13AM

anti-semantic

ahaha

Tiptup300 @ Jun 26th 2009 12:05PM

I hate americans so much.

"He ripped me off for 20 dollars, SUE EM!"

Makes me sick.

Duke @ Jun 26th 2009 1:15PM

By some people you mean tiptup and sean?

ldkdfskldfslsdkjldl @ Jun 26th 2009 1:36PM

I may never understand you people and making fun of jews. Seriously, who started this joke, it's phenomenal! I never knew the words of southpark can spread all over the world. Will european and chinese joke emerge?

Oh fock it, all aboard the failboat.

cuteSAVAGE @ Jun 26th 2009 2:14PM

@ ldkdfskldfslsdkjldl: I don't think we can necessarily blame South Park. Some form of antisemitism permeates much of global culture, and has for a long time. While South Park may bring some of that out, it is hardly to blame for idiots like this.

South Park at least takes a tongue in cheek approach, and they often show the repercussions of antisemitism. Cartman has made the anti-Jew popular, but the people who actually take it seriously, and emulate that behavior, are just ignorant louts.

*For the record, I'm also Jewish*

Sly @ Jun 26th 2009 2:52PM

yeah, south park makes fun of the jew haters in a round about way.

lanhuamikefu @ Aug 3rd 2009 9:38PM

I have some extra ffxi gils.The prize is cheaper than others and security goes first ,if you need them,please contact my MSN:lanhuamikefu@hotmail.com or yahoo messager :lanhuamikefu@yahoo.com

WREturns @ Jun 26th 2009 4:07AM

Oh man, there's gonna be like 5 people who'll be really pissed about this!

PS3Homie @ Jun 26th 2009 4:10AM

You would have thought something like this would have happened to WOW not Square Enix. I hope this doesn't delay FFXIII any longer.

jamie4k @ Jun 26th 2009 4:15AM

Why would something like this be expected to happen to wow? there login/subscribing system isnt as bad as square enixs.

ryanpaulmcgowan @ Jun 26th 2009 4:36AM

All MMO's have problems like this. In fact, every MMO I have played I've had either major or minor billing issues with.

UO: Account wouldn't cancel online, had to call.

DAoC: Account randomly came active several times after cancelling, had to cancel the credit card the game was on.

WoW: Charged for four months on one account on one day (4 individual $15.00) and only got one of those months worth of play out of it. Called support, they offered no help.

AoC: Account stayed active after I canceled it.

WAR: Account stayed active after I canceled it.

PS3Homie @ Jun 26th 2009 4:37AM

I never said WOW had anything wrong with their subscribing system. It's just that when you have over 10 million subscribers on WOW you expect this to happen more often there than FFXI.

ryanpaulmcgowan @ Jun 26th 2009 6:10AM

It does happen often though, it's just that nobody really cares since it's been the case for 10+ years.

On recollection, EQ, EQ2, and AC are the only games that gave me no credit card woes.

Regault @ Jun 26th 2009 11:17AM

There's also the fact that WoW charges state sales tax for states without Activision/Blizzard operations and refuses to provide proof that the collected taxes are being paid to the states.

mgsrocks1 @ Jun 26th 2009 4:14AM

Fucking $5 million dollars?! Get the hell out of here! I would be sympathetic if Square Enix truly hidden the fact that they charge interest (which doesn't make sense to me), but the amount of money she is asking is crazy!

Seeing how ridiculous of these suits are, I'm going to sue Apple because the logo on the back of my Macbook is a bitten Apple, and the author of Twilight for making vampires all sparkly and stuff. Actually, the author of Twilight deserves to be sued.

Giroro @ Jun 26th 2009 4:32AM

Yes, the author of twilight needs to be sued.
Whats the minimum number of people you need for a class action lawsuit?

deanb @ Jun 26th 2009 4:36AM

@giroro - 1+, but the main thing is who those people are, and that they represent someone (i.e a 'class')
As well as lot's of legal mumbo jumbo, but you don't need to know unless you go to Harvard or what not.

mgsrocks1 @ Jun 26th 2009 4:37AM

It doesn't even have to be people. Just send your dog and that should be enough.

Steven M @ Jun 26th 2009 4:27AM

So this idiot is suing "for what she alleges to be...unjust enrichment."
Yet she's suing for more than $5 million dollars for something so stupid???

deanb @ Jun 26th 2009 4:31AM

Class action lawsuit, so it will be on behalf of several people.
I don't think the money folks lost would still ad upto $5million but it is more than liekly a fee to tell SE off, though the final amount ( if any) will more than likely be less than the amount asked, it very rarely is.

deanb @ Jun 26th 2009 4:28AM

I believe the lawsuit is to do with the way Sqaure charge late fees and singing/unsubscribing at the wrong time in the month.
However it sounds like as with all things like this if you just complain enough Square back off on the charges.
Hopefully they sort their fees out before FFXIV hit's, though as with most cases this may not be finished before FFXIV is.

Giroro @ Jun 26th 2009 4:30AM

+1 for being the first post that has the faintest idea what this is about.

JayFight @ Jun 26th 2009 4:37AM

wait are you saying they charge you for late payments and for quiting the game? if so then thats a load of BS! i would sue them for being A-holes personally and i probably will never play their mmo's again(i miss my FF11). if thats not what your saying then yeah she's an idiot

deanb @ Jun 26th 2009 4:54AM

Right if you leave at the wrong time of the month you potentially get charged for two months.
If your payment comes in late (don't get how if its Direct Debit) then you get charged a late fee.
While both will more than likely be in the T&C it's not made plainly obvious you get more charges than t he standard month. I don't now much about all the MMO's so don't know if this is rather rare or not, but seems fairly reasonable if underhanded.
Though if you just ring up n complain(I'm guessing thats UK solution :P) you tend to get it sorted out

Muu @ Jun 26th 2009 8:56AM

Everyone and their dog knows not to restart a FF11 subscription at the end of the month though, and new subscriptions AFAIK get pro-rated fees, meaning only users coming back with the welcome back BS (myself included) were affected in any way.

I don't see subscriptions lasting to the end of the month when you cancel as being too ridiculous either, so I wonder how the hell this suit is going to go. On one hand I wish the dumbass lawyer that may benefit from this to spontaneously combust, but on the other hand I would love to see one-day tickets for use in FF14 come as a result.

Extinction @ Jun 26th 2009 5:00AM

As someone who has canceled their FF11 subscription (no game should level you down, or be that boring) I had no problems with that.

Ignatius @ Jun 26th 2009 11:08AM

Or burn your eyes, if you played the PC version.

It was like trying to see with sand in your eyes.

Exemplar @ Jun 26th 2009 5:02AM

I filly hope they filly disclose things filly, with FFXIV.

AvA (ice~) @ Jun 26th 2009 8:00AM

.....what?

Samael @ Jun 26th 2009 12:04PM

I see what you did there, I thought it was funny too :D

dargondarkfire @ Jun 26th 2009 6:14AM

well the monthly fee is bluntly stated, but the package doesn't state if you are late to pay the monthly fee you fill be charged a fee. >.>
i can't really protect the crazy person but they do hold a slight bit of an actual charge against them.

kmanabe @ Jun 26th 2009 7:49AM

Get rich or die tryin'

Chris @ Jun 26th 2009 8:02AM

This is pretty silly.... I play FFXI and the subscription fees are clearly and blatantly pointed out to you within the Content ID section of Playonline, so this person is basically admitting they can't actually read....

zaphodb42 @ Jun 26th 2009 8:59AM

can someone please define for me what constitutes unjust enrichment...

i swear you can sue for anything these days...

Jack_Jackington @ Jun 26th 2009 9:52AM

www.google.com

zaphodb42 @ Jun 26th 2009 10:02AM

@Jackington...

I see my point went right over your head there captain obvious

zodduska @ Jun 26th 2009 9:53AM

I had issues with my credit card several times during the couple years I played FFXI, upon re-activation I was double billed every time...

norm @ Jun 26th 2009 12:10PM

I got double billed on more than a few occasions. I cancelled, and then got charged a cancellation fee that I was never made aware of. Then, because I didn't know about it, I kept accumulating late payment fees. When I saw it on my credit report, I tried to rectify the situation but they refused to help me at all and said my passwords were invalid. I don't see how you (original poster, Xan De Matos.) can consider this frivolous if you are even admitting you don't know the whole story. If you think this suit is moronic, you obviously haven't done any research into it.

Bigfoot @ Jun 26th 2009 11:44AM

Leela: Ow! Fire hot!
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: The professy will help. *reaches into fire* Ahh! Fire indeed hot!

Axon @ Jun 26th 2009 12:27PM

Won't get past a 12(b)(6).

VampireHunter Z @ Jun 26th 2009 1:05PM

Late fees? Interest? When I used to play the monthly fee was automatically deducted from my account. I don't see how it can be late.

PN04 @ Jun 26th 2009 1:54PM

From the blog referenced in the update:
***Based on the information available, this looks like a case of 'I bought the game, didn't pay my monthly fees, and are mad that you won't let me play and are charging me interest on the fees I owe you.'***

So wait, How is she still playing if she never paid any fees? Yeah you get a 30 day free trail with most MMOs but I alwasy thought they warn you that you cant continue playing without subscribing and even if you subscribe and the subscription runs out they warn you again that you need to pay and they cut your account. I know they hold on to your character even if you dont re-up the subscription with the hope that you;ll come back but are they saying that they charge you to keep the character alive? or that she played longer than her subscription period some how and now wont let her back in without paying for the time between when her subscription ended and when she tried to re-up?

On the surface it looks like simple stupidity but at the same time I can't see someing being stupid enough to expect the lawsuit to work without there being something more complicated going on under it all.

winterlight @ Jun 26th 2009 4:20PM

My guess is that she's emo over the completely Byzantine billing practices over at SE. Being a long time player and experiencing yet another billing snafu this past April I can see how the official American sport of litigation can be introduced here.

To be clear Sqeidox is pretty lousy at customer service but they do fix snafus...in the long run...the very long run

Hellkitty @ Jun 26th 2009 4:45PM

I have been playing FFXI for years(since the North American launch) and there is no interest or late fees that I have ever seen or heard of. I have personally canceled my account and had my bank info declined numerous times due to not having cash in my account or just not playing at the time. You pay your account, you play. Your card is declined, you don't play till you enter your info again. The only thing I can think of is when you reactive your acct after non payment they do not charge you until the next billing cycle and it is for the previous and the current month so it is a double charge on your first statement. They are very clear about fees to the point of annoyance. This suit is BS. Do not jeopardize my game because you can't read or I will hunt you down.