Lawsuit filed against Sony's anti-lawsuit provision

by Alexander Sliwinski on Dec 20th 2011 1:20PM

A class-action suit filed in a California court late last month seeks to reverse Sony's forced prevention of class-action suits, which the company buried in a mandatory PSN update, following the PSN security breach earlier this year.

Gamespot reports the suit claims Sony engaged in unfair business practices by forcing consumers to choose between giving up access to PSN or the right to a class-action lawsuit over hardware they purchased. The suit also calls out Sony for only allowing consumers to opt-out of the class action provision by snail mail, rather than any modern communication method.

We've contacted Sony for an official statement about the suit.

Update: A Sony representative informed us, "We don't comment on pending litigation."

Tags: class-action, lawsuit, playstation, ps3, psn-outage-2011, Sony

Reader Comments (75)

How terrible of Sony! Thank goodness Microsoft didn't follow sui-oh wait.

@TerryMasters
Sony did it first, if ruled against Sony you can bet it will be the same for Microsoft and every other company.

You can't sign away certain rights to individuals and it really should be the same for corporations. It's a dangerous precedent not being able to sue.

Who cares if people do it too much, it's about checks and balances.

I see valid opinions on both sides of this matter and frankly I don't care what happens. If Microsoft and Sony end up being grossly negligent somehow people will sue them anyway and might win if the negligence is considerable enough. So, the "worst case scenario" isn't the end all anyway.

No, I'm FAR more concerned about SOPA and its evil derivatives. THAT'S the biggest threat right now and no one seems to care enough.

@TerryMasters Don't forget that EA joined the party as well! http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/23/ea-inserts-anti-lawsuit-language-into-new-user-agreement.aspx

@Mmmmz
people can still sue sony but it must be done as a individual.. they just dont want any more class action suits..\

@Mmmmz This has NOTHING to do with Sony. Sony added it into their ToS and such because the LAW was passed that restricts class action lawsuits. Blame the voters and the members of government who passed the law not the companies that follow the law by warning their customers of the law change.

@Mmmmz SOPA? Pffft. What about NDAA and the ability to indefinitely detain both foreign and domestic "enemies of the state" without trial? Who cares who's censoring the internet if they're locking away people like Julian Assange and dissident political party leaders and throwing away the key?

@Mmmmz I care. And I'm trying to spread the word as much as I can and drive home the idea that just because people have already fired off their emails their protest against SOPA is NOT done. It's not done until SOPA is buried.

There has been tremendous headway, but the bill's proponents are literally ignoring or backhandedly dismissing any and all criticism in the interest of railroading this unconsitutional BS through the approval process.

It's not over yet.

@Kougeru I'm sure SOPA's contributing to this, but if you want to blame anything look at the Supreme Court ruling in AT&T's favor over making people waive their rights to a class action suit.

SOPA has been delayed so you can't really put the blame there.

@Kougeru

FYI - Supreme Court Justices are "appointed for life," not elected. They were the ones who validated (and made lawful) these types of provisions.

So no, don't blame the voters. Hell, there's a cross-section of voters (myself included) who wasn't even of voting age when a good portion of the SCOTUS justices were appointed.

@TerryMasters Um, they recently did do the same...

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71439/updated-xbox-live-tos-blocks-class-action-suits

@TerryMasters

Sueception!

But... corporations know what's best for us! Especially ones like Sony who head both the RIAA and MPAA and love installing Rootkits. And shut down nasty import companies like Lik-Sang.

They just want to protect us from ourselves!

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They have a lot of companies to file a lawsuit against.

@carmaction

yea unless their only console is a PS3 then they would only go after them. and i hear EA is like that as well but really tho.... who's going to go after EA for the gam....oh wait the BF3 thing ... forgot about that

Never Mind

@HardBoiled2009

lets see voted down for saying the people filing lawsuit may only have PS3's so it's reasonable they only go after Sony and no Microsoft then i brought up EA's and forgot about the PS3 BF1943 free with BF3 thing ?

why i'm not trolling i'm putting a legitimate response, why go after Microsoft in a lawsuit when you don't own a xbox. and EA i guess you could go after but i rather go after a company for Hardware then software.

@HardBoiled2009

WAY more then just Microsoft and Sony have an anti-class action lawsuit

Class-action lawsuit against the prevention of class-action lawsuits.

Yes, I support this, but that just sounds silly. Heehee.

@AxelSteelBMX
It's so meta!

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

I initially saw your ! as an L and couldn't figure out how this was metal.

@AxelSteelBMX

Surprised the obvious inception joke has yet to be made.

@MrAlex I was tempted, believe me. Besides, I think Swooded captured the spirit much better further down the page.

not as silly as Sony thinking they can make up laws

This case needs to be more riveting. Lets put it in a Phoenix Wright game,

Objection!!!

Up next: EA, MS, Valve.

At least Sony's had an opt out. You can't even opt out of the MS ToS change..

@Syesta

Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure it's mandatory to have an opt out for these things, since otherwise it's just straight up illegal (instead of simply unjust bullsh*t)

@Syesta
Nope, Microsoft has an Opt out... You can do it one of two ways, Write a letter, or go on Xbox.com find the form, fill it out, then send it

@Syesta

LOL Sony Defense Force: "Uh oh, bad PS3 news... MAKE UP ALLLL THE FACTS!"

@killer rin
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/07/new-xbox-live-terms-of-service-prevent-class-action-lawsuits-aga/
According to the update there you can't opt out without giving up Xbox live.

@(Unverified)
you must have a short attention span. when the sony hacks happened it was the sony haters making up all the facts. Sony hater: "Sony didn't even encrypt the passwords!" Truth: Sony used a cryptographic hash function which cannot be decrypted unlike merely encrypted data.

if anything this story shows the double standard in the gaming community with their purely subjective righteousness.

sony can just say that they are not the only company as well as a few other things and it will be dismissed, no way sony did this without their legal department making sure it is 100% legit.

@chromekreeper
lol, 100% legit...

Believe me, companies don't care if something is legitimate. Lawyers don't care if something is legitimate.

No, what they care about are the odds of getting away with something. In this case, the odds are favorable and the inevitable lawsuit coming from this policy is well worth it if they win and can prevent future ones.

They saw this coming and they're probably loving it.

@chromekreeper companies have for years tried to do things that isnt exaclty legal... its more of doing things that they can get away with..

but honestly it should be within the consumers rights to launch a class action suit... honeslty i hope that sony gets ordered to reverse this clause in their agreement..\

@Mmmmz http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-says-arbitration-agreements-can-ban-class-action-efforts/2011/04/27/AFp23j0E_story.html

Completely legal. Sorry.

I call them whiny brats and someone comes and called them heroes of consumer rights. Either way this is pretty pathetic news. Gamers would be the biggest sore losers.

Sony added that part to their EULA because AT&T won that Supreme Court case. I'll be curious if this case CAN even play out since its already been decided.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Wins-Supreme-Court-Arbitration-Case-113952

Is that ironic?

Who gives a shit, yay!

"I'm gonna sue Sony for not letting me sue them!" Brilliant! What was this person, high or something?

@Gibbeynator

agreed, this is all getting a bit ridiculous..

Sony is doing a Stewie right now.

"Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

I'm sick of this sue-happy bullshit. If you don't like Sony, don't like MS, or disapprove of their online service policies, don't buy or support their products! Voila- problem solved!

Emperor Palps, "You want this, don't you?" Skywalker, "Nnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooo nnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooo."

"We've contacted Sony for an official statement about the suit."

I would guess that Sony's response will be, "We don't comment on pending litigation."

Which means they're not going to talk about it until the trial is over. If they lose they'll appeal so they still want to talk about it then. If they win they won't want to talk about it since it just brings more attention to what a scumbag move they made, even if it was found to be legal. Just once I'd like to see a corporation give a completely candid comment or interview after everything was over.

@hdhrant Prophecy fulfilled; check the update. Also, what are this week's lottery numbers?

@hdhrant
Since your post was before the update... Are you a wizard?

I'm shocked.

Do these people have nothing better to do?

Haven't those dumb Americans got nothing better to do? :-/

Yo Dawg, I heard you like the legal process, so we filed a class action lawsuit against your class action prohibition, so you can contest the legality of the suit while the legality of the provision is being contested.

@swooded

lol

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Lawsuit filed against Sony's anti-lawsuit provision

Reader Comments (75)

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:21PM TerryMasters said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:35PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:37PM TehRichard said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:41PM Teus said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:53PM Kougeru said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:59PM jsx92 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:02PM AxelSteelBMX said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 4:23PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 5:21PM The Moof said

Posted: Dec 21st 2011 12:15AM MDMonster said

Posted: Dec 21st 2011 4:54AM Haizeus said

Posted: Dec 21st 2011 9:31AM EIranzer said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:25PM ansalon929 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:25PM carmaction said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:36PM HardBoiled2009 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:34PM HardBoiled2009 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 5:05PM Faenix said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:29PM AxelSteelBMX said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:59PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:27PM Courtney said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:53PM MrAlex said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 3:55PM AxelSteelBMX said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 4:06PM singleandlovinit said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:29PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:30PM Syesta said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:49PM Hyperion45 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:58PM killer rin said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 4:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 6:25PM DreadArrow said

Posted: Dec 21st 2011 4:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:31PM chromekreeper said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:37PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:45PM Teus said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:55PM Kougeru said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:32PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:36PM MusiM said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:36PM Marco le Polo said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:41PM Gibbeynator said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:12PM LENSconcept said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:41PM Royale 501st said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:42PM Jimmyjames said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:45PM MercShame said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 1:49PM hdhrant said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:47PM AxelSteelBMX said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 6:53PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:09PM civilciv said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:13PM TCJJ said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:17PM RealityCheck2013 said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 2:23PM swooded said

Posted: Dec 20th 2011 3:35PM PR0F3TA said

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