In a recent post from a couple of months ago, it was reported that Nintendo had updated their End-User License Agreement (EULA), in which they specified that the user cannot sue Nintendo through a class-action lawsuit, and that if the user of a Nintendo hardware was detected to have been using the console in an unauthorized way by Nintendo, be it homebrew or any other modification to the console, that Nintendo could not only ban, but even render "the applicable Nintendo device unusable".

The update sparked quite the debate online about the implications of said changes, with some saying that the changes made to the EULA were referring to the right of Nintendo the ban the console from online services, to others saying that Nintendo will outright brick the console that the consumer purchased.

All that heated debate seems to have gotten into the ears of higher-ups in Brazil, with the consumer protection agency, Procon-SP, claiming that the changes to the clauses made by Nintendo in their EULA are flat-out abusive to Brazilian customers, with the main complaint being the unjustified and unilateral cancellation of subscriptions to the online services. The main risk that Procon-SP explains when it comes to this issue is that "the consumer may be left without a product, without a response and without assistance".

However, there's another issue related to this conflict, as Nintendo doesn't have formal legal representation based on Brazil. Given this instance, Procon-SP had to contact the company's HQ based in the United States, to which Nintendo appointed a law firm in Brazil to handle such case, but only in regards to the disputed clause.

Nintendo will review the case, and they will respond within 20 days, but Brazilian users and customers are recommended by Procon-SP to report any irregularity to their main website to assist with the case.

Source

 

[BlusterBong]

Your reasoning is kinda weird. "if something comes out of this it's only going to happen in that specific place" yes? that's literally the point here, and the comparison to EU is disingenuous, the outcome would likely be the same in any other country in the world that is not part of an union, or you think the only viable option for something like this would be if we had a global government that forced them to follow the same rules everywhere in the world?

The difference is this: Apple is still shipping Iphones with USB-C ports because of the EU mandate demanding they do as android phones shipped with USB-C while Iphones relied on a Thunderbolt port, but NOT shipping them with chargers because of the brazil mandates that they must include a charger in the box the phone came in only in Brazil. One is a ban in one country that would be negligible at at best and make a small but hardly noticable dent at worst, and the other is a ban on an entire swath of countries that would quickly add up to impacting revenue and sales.

If you were behind a large for-profit corporation, which one would be more detrimental to you if you just ignored it, left the market, or just did the bare minimum to comply?

Even if Brazil was successful in this, There's nothing stopping them from leaving or making it harder to get products there because Nintendo doesn't have a "Nintendo of South America" branch there and can just not sell there, something more obvious given that the advocacy group had to contact NoA and not the branch of Nintendo that doesn't exist. Sure, Brazil has a population of a little over 200 Million, but the combined total of the EU is almost double that and The United States combined has over 300 million, not to mention nations like China or India with populations in the billions. The former two Nintendo does have branches in with Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe respectively while the latter two they ignored for a long time to the point that prices are worsened because of it, and the other they're straight up getting ready to leave anyways.

if the gov here (US) wasn't run by clowns and had consumer protectioms on par with other western countries hell if i hypetheticly won the WH i'd actually sanction nintendo for several reasons (Palworld being the main) but switch 2 bricking will be a 2nd place prize)

That's pretty delusional consitering that Congress and the Courts can just overturn it, especially since Nintendo (or even other corporations like Apple) isn't doing anything that would even pose a national threat like TikTok havng concerns over being Chineese Spyware. A dinky lawsuit in a nation you don't have control over and something said in a ELUA isn't enough to justify a sanction and you'd get swatted off by Congress for being unconstitutional becasue the ways of putting sanctions down don't work the way you'd wish it would.

 

[raxadian]

Really wish my country would do the same.

 

[SDA]

As for Brazil, it's not that profitable for Nintendo (compared to Sony and even Xbox), hence why they would have no issues dropping it once more if they deem it "necessary".

I have to disagree on that opinion as Nintendo has been around in Brazil for quite long (even back in the SNES days), and Switch sales there have been pretty strong.

 

[Exnor]

The EULA is not enforceable on the EU. In fact i think not enforceable in the majority of countries outside USA and maybe Japan(?)

 

[paulttt]

If you get a ban on switch 2, do the game key card thingies still work if you was to purchase a new game?

 

[AlphaBravo]

Respect to Brazil. It seems a lot of consumers in the West or around the World would rather support and be complicit with these corporations. As if they were a friend or family member. So because cute Mario is the mascot or you have nostalgia from child hood that you can trust? It's a type of issue like "stockholm syndrome". Nintendo, Sony, M$ are almost as bad as each other. Slowly eroding consumers rights, banning class action lawsuits, copy right abuse, over priced digital games, amongst other devious acts.
I figured this out in my early 20s. Hopefully others will be more open minded than I was. Have to keep Corporations in check. Consumer rights are precious

 

[almmiron]

Brazil? I had forgotten they even sell Nintendo stuff there.

Still, good luck.

they did back in 80s in partnership with local manufacturing companies (gradiente: nes, snes, n64 and gamecube). In the wii era, nintendo kinda left us middle gen, and then came back with wiiU officialy licensed here. switch, and switch 2 was also official here.

pricing is abusive as always (not as much as the Nordic Countries), and we are all hoping you know who do you know what.

Spoiler

about the news:

Procon (CONsumer PROtection), is an brazilian agency (per state) that prevents companies, with all their political and economical power, harms the consumer in anyway. Like nintendo is intending to do even more than already doing.

There's our "consumer defense code" that all companies that provides services and products in Brazil must follow. If a company doesn't, you dont need to go (slowest) judicial, you go to (fastest) Procon. Usually resolves before going judicial.

(...) because Nintendo doesn't have a "Nintendo of South America" branch there and can just not sell there (...)

Kind of wrong. Nintendo LATAM is a thing (inside noa).

 

[Skv0ra]

Good luck. I still think people are taking the whole "ban" thing to the worst extremes, but whatever.

Was never this bad 10y ago, but same time games were mostly physical and getting online portion of extra functionality cut didn't affect the main purpose of a game console - to play damn games.

 

[Afeohtan]

Serves those greedy fiends right.

 

[Rioluwott]

In México something similar happened, Samsung, Motorola, ZTE and other phone companies started blocking online functionality from phones obtained outside the official stores(imported from other countries) and the consumer rights agency here made them reverse those changes and pay a fine since it is not illegal to import phones from other countries and the same here it is not illegal to modify the hardware you bought and run whatever you want on it even if only on paper they are directly going against the user rights and an EULA is not above any law even if the user accepted it(nobody reads those things if they did the productivity of a lot of companies would go down a lot, there is an study about).
EDIT: new gbatemp post reply thingy confuses me

 

[spotanjo3]

Awesome. America consumer agency did nothing and will not legally challenge Nintendo ? Tsk tsk.

 

[Skv0ra]

As a lot of you guys said before, this action by itself is probably not going anywhere, but I would not underestimate its significance as a whole. I believe it a least sets a precedent from where regulatory agencies from other countries or the EU could also take future action, and maybe - just maybe - could force Nintendo and the other companies to review some of their most abusive practices. The companies nowadays are too powerful, behaving as if we the consumers have just the right to bow and obey to what they dictate, as if it's our privilege to buy theirs products and services, so maybe this is a first step in the right direction.

And last, but not least, VAI BRASIL!

Well, realistically hobbies aren't living essentials, soooo........these corpos can try to do whatever they want, and we can simply avoid their products until they change their bullshit. We have things like Steam Deck now as that console/budget PC for the vast majority of consumers who can only spring enough money for a console because Valve wasn't blind to entertainment trends and stepped up. We have devs starting to encroach on markets like Pokemon since that's what consumers want.

And like I keep saying and everyone chooses to forget - big N has a super-by-the-Japanese approach to products. X costs Y, never less, you can only use it to do X the way they want you to, and you either do just that or skip the product.

Though crApple lost their proprietary chargers nonsense thanks to EU push, they weren't a phone monopoly and people could and still easily ignore their awful and limiting OS via dozens of competitive phone offerings from other mfgs.

Just vote with your wallets, especially if you can easily live without the Nth freaking Mario game that you'll likely beat once and never touch again.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Was never this bad 10y ago, but same time games were mostly physical and getting online portion of extra functionality cut didn't affect the main purpose of a game console - to play damn games.

The Nintendo Switch still works with physical games, even if you are banned, so technically it isn't different from consoles of yesteryear. The only difference now is, the terms have been updated to be way more forward in their approach with banning or restricting services. If this was the case of an always online platform, and the ban effectively turns your system into paperweight, then yea, I could buy the outcry. Then again though, what about cloud platforms where basically this is the case anyways? Nobody bitches about those situations enough to get the law involved, despite the fact that while you aren't being banned, you lose all access to the entire functionality of the system. Google Stadia ring any bells? Nobody did shit legally speaking to fight that one.

 

[AlexMCS]

Reading these threads is always hilarious, people really think that Brazil is a small market or that we're still playing with Master Systems or PS2s.

Anyway, PROCON-SP has been quite effective at pushing back anti-consumer practices as previously mentioned (iPhone chargers, Sony console bans over PSN Gold Collections, etc), so they might able to get an agreement on the TOS stuff (even if it's not being enforced rn).

Just echoing what @matpower said: It's hysterical reading threads like this one.
I did not realize people were that clueless about Brazil.

The Switch 2 restocks don't last even 2 hours here.

Even with the over the top prices:
- Switch 2: R$ 4800, or $885 in direct conversion (today, 1 USD = 5.42 BRL), which is how much i paid for mine (in 12 installments of R$400).
- Switch 2 games: R$ 500, $92 in direct conversion.

The kicker: It's actually cheaper now compared to a few years ago.

And all that with the pitifully low wages:

| Metric | Monthly (BRL) | Hourly (BRL) | Monthly (USD) | Hourly (USD) |
|------------------------|---------------|--------------|---------------|--------------|
| **Average salary** | R$ 3,378 | R$ 15.35 | $623 | $2.83 |
| **Median salary** | R$ 2,500 * | R$ 11.36 * | $461 * | $2.10 * |
| **Federal minimum wage**| R$ 1,518 | R$ 6.90 | $280 | $1.27 |

\* Median values are estimated based on labor income distribution studies (IBGE/PNAD, FGV/IBRE).
Exchange rate used: 1 USD = R$ 5.42
Workload: 220 hours/month (44 h/week)

There is no state minimum wage either.

So, we pay a LOT MORE and get a LOT LESS than developed countries, and that, my friends, is ridiculous.
And people wonder why piracy runs rampant over here.

PROCON going for Nintendo's behind is nothing in face of that,

P.S.: Long live Steam.

 

[aoimatsuri]

Hope my country can make Ninty bow for them.

Make Nintendo bark like a dog.

And when this is done, ship all the GameKeyCards back to NintendoHQ, and they shall pay for the shipping.

 

[Hide616]

Good Nintendo deserves a foot in their ass anyway.

 

[YoureALoser]

theyre not bricking any systems so it doesnt really matter anyway

Not very smart are you? Switch 2 games being dependent on an internet connection means a ban is the equivalent to bricking the device & that is illegal. You can't ban a console that depends on the internet, Sony tried & failed. Nintendo will have to have physical releases for all of their games, none of that keycard bullshit, or they'll have to allow banned consoles access to their servers.

 

[Skv0ra]

Not very smart are you? Switch 2 games being dependent on an internet connection means a ban is the equivalent to bricking the device & that is illegal. You can't ban a console that depends on the internet, Sony tried & failed. Nintendo will have to have physical releases for all of their games, none of that keycard bullshit, or they'll have to allow banned consoles access to their servers.

But physically, it isn't. I very, very highly doubt anyone will get much headway over N's way or the highway in the ToS. It's really the equivalent of any specific play area dependent spot - you buy the golf clubs and balls, they are yours, do whatever you want with em, but if you get banned from your only golf course - you still own the clubs, just can't really play properly and that's NOT the course's fault for you having bought the clubs.

So, again, only honest way to fight all of this bullshit is with your wallet/waiting for piracy, but with PC coming in closer and closer in pricing to consoles and having tons of adjacent games - choice is becoming easier and easier to get away from consoles.

 

[Retrojunkies]

Let's hope other regions join in on this because it clearly violated your rights, if you do not agree to there terms and wish to remain on a old firmware for the use of loading personal backups then you are entitled to opt out.

Just because you own something doesn't mean you waiver your legal rights.

I'd say the likes of the MiG cartridge even more needed seeing how Switch 2 game cartridges feel even more cheaply made, weak flimsy plastic and a crappy card inside that rattles.

I definitely do not trust constantly inserting/removing these for a prolonged period of time.

I've already had issues with my Switch 2 randomly stop detecting my game card while playing a game, then taking multiple attempts of removing and inserting it for it to eventually detect it

And Nintendo thinks it's acceptable to charge even more for these dirt cheap carts, you literally get better quality knock off clone cartridges than this shit Nintendo crap out.

And this also fucks over the already witnessed second hand market, which only an idiot couldn't foresee happening

User using an exploit, finds it doesn't work, or has the account banned, sells it, new user tries going online with their account, console flags up, bans the account and bricks the console.

They shouldn't be allowed by law to intentionally render the console utterly useless, the law should force Nintendo to use it's detection methods and prevent known exploits from working period.

Not allow it so you can brick consoles.

They should also be forced to abide by laws so that people who use exploits are required to be on the latest firmware and doing so, all online features will be blocked and accounts risk been banned, NOT brick consoles.

And for those who wish to remain on redundant firmwares, then the terms should only apply to current/future firmwares and not past

As it allows them to be on releasing broken games and features on the grounds that they can fix it at a later date via updates

 

[raxadian]

I have to disagree on that opinion as Nintendo has been around in Brazil for quite long (even back in the SNES days), and Switch sales there have been pretty strong.

Nintendo, due to how expensive their consoles were there, didn't have significant profits in Brazil until the Wii. Both the Master System and the Sega Genesis outsold Nintendo consoles in Brazil due to a local company making them there. Brazil also had more ports to Master System that the USA did.