In a court case that is unlikely to be replicated anywhere else, a Brazilian gamer walked home with the W against Microsoft in court.
The issue primarily concerned his account. According to support emails he posted on Reddit, Ordo_Liberal’s account was suspended after Microsoft detected unauthorized access.
Microsoft supposedly conducted an investigation, after which it determined his account’s security information changed. Following this decision, Microsoft seemingly treated the suspension as permanent and had Ordo_Liberal repurchase all of his games instead of reinstating the ones already tied to his account.
His account had two-factor authentication enabled when it was flagged and suspended. As a result, he attempted Microsoft’s recovery options to regain access to his account, but none of the options worked.
Ordo_Liberal ultimately decided to take Microsoft to court, an action that could potentially cost quite a bit of money in other countries. Not so in Brazil – the Consumer Defense Code allows the country’s residents to bring cases for small claims without a lawyer and without incurring court costs.
The good news for Ordo_Liberal is the ruling landed in his favor. As a result, Microsoft was ordered to restore his account and pay around $400 in damages within 15 days.
If the company misses the deadline, it will incur an additional 10-percent penalty.
Although the damages may seem small, the implications are quite big, if limited to Brazil. Courts in other countries have been inconsistent in how they treat digital content. In China, for example, there is now legal precedent to recognize game accounts as inheritable. Meanwhile, U.S. courts have generally treated games as revocable licenses.
Here, Brazil is unique yet again. The ruling runs counter to Microsoft’s policy of video games being treated as licenses instead of properties that people own. It sets an important precedent in the country, but it’s doubtful it can be replicated elsewhere.
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