A game player has recharged a total of 114,000 yuan to two game accounts. Unexpectedly, the game platform suddenly issued an announcement to shut down the server and stop operating! Because the compensation plan was not communicated fruitlessly, the gamer went to court in anger to defend his rights and demanded a refund of all recharges.
Today, the Guangdong Higher People's Court released typical cases of judicial protection of consumer rights and interests, and the above cases were selected.
Recharge 114,000 game accounts but shut down
Xu downloaded a mobile game and registered two game accounts, recharged 21,000 yuan and 93,000 yuan to the two accounts respectively during the game, and obtained a total of 1,072,000 yuan treasure and 12,405,000 yuan treasure.
On September 1, 2020, a network technology company of the game operator issued an announcement that it would shut down the server after 60 days, and all the data such as the game characters would be emptied, and proposed a compensation plan, that is, during the period from the game shutdown recharge to the official suspension, the full service would issue 20,000 yuan of compensation per day.
The game involved in the case shut down the server in October 2020, and Xu's game account A had 16812607 yuanbao left and account B had 2602799 yuanbao.
Xu believed that a network technology company constituted a breach of contract, so he sued the court, demanding that a network technology company refund all the recharge amount of 114,000 yuan.
The effective judgment of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court held that the relationship between Xu and a network technology company constituted a network service contract relationship. According to the contract and the practice of the game industry, a network technology company may request to terminate the contract at any time according to the operation of the game, and it has notified Xu before a reasonable period of time, so the suspension of operation of the game involved in the case does not constitute a breach of contract.
However, when terminating the service, a network technology company shall return the virtual currency of the online game that the user has not yet used in legal tender or other means.
According to the principle of fairness, combined with the sum of the number of yuan treasures consumed and the remaining yuan treasures calculated by the number of yuan treasures obtained by the recharge, and with reference to the proportion of the yuan treasure purchased by the renminbi recharge, a network technology company was sentenced to refund Xu 25,000 yuan.
The court pointed out that online virtual property such as virtual currency recharged by players in game accounts is protected in accordance with the law. This case establishes in accordance with the law the adjudication rules that when online games terminate operations, the unused virtual currency in the player's game account should be returned in proportion to legal tender, clarifies the contractual obligations and responsibilities of game operators, regulates the development of the online game industry, protects the legitimate rights and interests of online virtual property and game users, and creates a healthy, fair and good network environment.
Text/Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng Reporter: Charter Correspondents Chen Kangxiu and Zhong Lei
Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng reporter: Charter
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Wu Yivan