With subscription services now the norm on consoles, it looks like they have finally caught the attention of consumer rights bodies regarding whether or not they are fair. In the UK, the Competition Authority will be investigating Xbox Live, PS Plus, and Nintendo Switch Online to see whether or not the three services are actually legal and fair for customers.
Among the things they will look at is how the services handle auto-renewals—do they make it abundantly clear for their customers when the auto-renewal is, and is it easy to cancel that renewal? Is it easy to cancel your subscription for the service? Are refunds easy to get?
I think all three services are doing well on the cancellation and auto-renewal fronts, but they might falter on the refunds bit. Nintendo and Sony both make it notoriously difficult to get refunds for their services (or anything, for that matter; Sony’s new refund policies are not applicable in the UK and Europe). Hopefully, that is something that all three of them can be made to change their stances on.
We’re investigating whether some of PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo’s auto-renewal terms are unfair.
These include:
🎮 use of roll-over contracts
🎮 cancellation and refund policies
🎮 any changes made to the membershipFind out more: https://t.co/aAtwzPZ6iq pic.twitter.com/O0v0ziY8XN
— Competition & Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) April 5, 2019
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