Joy-Con drift class action lawsuit dropped by Illinois court, must be judged by arbitrator

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Another update to the never-ending Joy-Con drift debacle sees the class action lawsuit brought up against Nintendo dropped by the US District Court of Illinois. The case, filed by Zachary Vergara, began last year in small claims court, in hopes of bypassing the requirement to arbitrate the dispute. The case was later brought to a federal court, where Nintendo defended themselves by claiming that any consumer that purchases their hardware agrees to their end-user license, which protects them from such lawsuits and instead requires legal disputes to go through full arbitration. The judge presiding over the case came to the conclusion that Vergara must take his lawsuit to an arbitrator to confirm if his case can go through federal court, or if Nintendo's EULA requires full arbitration. While Nintendo won out in this instance, the judge told Vergara that he can bring his case back to court should the arbitrator decide that the Joy-Con lawsuit doesn't have a need for arbitration.

An Illinois man must arbitrate his claim that Nintendo of America Inc. sold defective controllers with its Switch game systems, a federal court in the state said Thursday.

Zachary Vergara entered into a valid arbitration agreement with Nintendo, and whether his claim falls within its scope is for an arbitrator to decide, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said.

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subcon959

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I think I've mentioned this before somewhere, but why can't they just add trim controls? There isn't a joystick in the world that won't eventually drift so the correct mitigation is to allow easy adjustment to correct this.
 

eskinner3742

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It really is a problem. I have all colors first releases and EVERY LEFT JOYCON I OWN HAS HAD DRIFT. Some worse than others. Nintendo's free joycon repair program does not guarantee theyll send you back the same color which for a collector like me a no go. The repair is not difficult so I have repaired a few on my own but the issue is ever present and extremely annoying when it can cost you matches in Splatoon or Arms.
 

BORTZ

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The only thing this post has done for me is remind me that I want to pick up some new differently colored neon joycons eventually lol
 

FAST6191

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"Nintendo defended themselves by claiming that any consumer that purchases their hardware agrees to their end-user license"

I don't remember anyone agreeing in buying a crap.

Not really what you were heading for, and I agree the once generous amount of Nintendium present in devices from the company seems to have been switched out for some Nontondium or possibly some harder than average cheese someone had left over, but a nice jumping off point for something I probably should have noted earlier.

Generally in the US if you buy a product you are seen as agreeing to the terms, in Europe you tend to only agree to it if it is presented at time of sale (mainly big items, nobody does it for low volume software or consoles or anything. Do note the "by downloading this you agree to" likely counts as agreeing to something).

Equally the agreement is probably very carefully worded to avoid removing any rights (this is the your statutory rights thing or equivalent language in other places https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/...t-your-statutory-rights-what-it-really-means/ ) pertaining to a return, just that it will want to avoid you joining a class action lawsuit, various types of court actions (various localities have actually created small claims courts that allow for low volume things, some of which they will not be allowed to send lawyers to -- Microsoft quite famously lost a Windows downgrade case https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/27/woman_microsoft_windows_10_upgrades/ ) and instead attempt to resolve it individually through arbitration (which mathematically at least favours them, not to mention by the time you took a day or two off work and put in hours to get your ducks in a row as far as paperwork and what to discuss, maybe spoke to a legal type about what to expect which is usually not a cheap hobby...).

None of this says you can't return it/warranty it under the premise that it is not fit for task, just that when they do (and when they then give you the run around and claim all sorts of nonsense to avoid having to do anything) that you first have to do that arbitration bit, either resolving it there or getting permission to then go to a big boy court.
 

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So when a car company knowingly has a car come to market with faulty breaks or airbags that’s what ok in your mind because it’s not a USA thing it’s a World thing faulty equipment is deceiving the consumer and in most cases is protected under Consumer Rights Law and those policies are even stricter under EU Law so when a Company takes advantage normally legal action occurs to give them a swift reminder that hey we are watching you B-)
Were does it say that Nintendo was AWARE that it would turn out like this ? All their previous controler were flawless.

Pip'
 

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All their previous controler were flawless.

Pip'
Never had a spring die in a N64 controller (and all the nice white powder)? Shoulder buttons on a DS? Bit less common but sticks on a GC controller often start missing an axis or whole stick, most wiimotes I saw die from abuse or leaking batteries but they had their fun with buttons too (and if we count the sensor bar as part of the controller, and if you need one to so much as get a game playing I am going for it, they died all over the shop), nobody had a wii u so we saw fewer issues there but there were some (especially deep discharge related).

As for knowing I might be curious if this case ever gets to discovery/disclosure and we maybe get to see what kind of accelerated testing they did, or analysis of first rounds of failed units (we saw reports on here quite early on). If they have a decent test setup like I saw in Microsoft's labs (again if anybody has the video from a few e3's back I would appreciate it, it was filler between shows on IGN, gamespot or similar and likely youtube player as well) it should have been revealed by that, and might well have been obvious even then (consumable items like carbon traces have a history in many things).
 

Teletron1

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Were does it say that Nintendo was AWARE that it would turn out like this ? All their previous controler were flawless.

Pip'
Please stop.. the system goes in development games go into development and take longer through the course of their development and you want to think not once did any of their Joycons drift ? It was practically the first system update had to deal with joycon issues

to not even want to bring up drift issues you also have connection issues ,thumb sticks after the first 2 weeks on my original started to deform and now recently stopped working (they don’t light up but work if connected in handheld) I’ll investigate maybe battery finally died after 3yrs :unsure:

But these little controllers aren’t inexpensive they are almost a 1/3 of the cost of the system but clearly lack Nintendo’s seal of approval :hateit:
 

MetoMeto

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Not really what you were heading for, and I agree the once generous amount of Nintendium present in devices from the company seems to have been switched out for some Nontondium or possibly some harder than average cheese someone had left over, but a nice jumping off point for something I probably should have noted earlier.

Generally in the US if you buy a product you are seen as agreeing to the terms, in Europe you tend to only agree to it if it is presented at time of sale (mainly big items, nobody does it for low volume software or consoles or anything. Do note the "by downloading this you agree to" likely counts as agreeing to something).

Equally the agreement is probably very carefully worded to avoid removing any rights (this is the your statutory rights thing or equivalent language in other places https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/...t-your-statutory-rights-what-it-really-means/ ) pertaining to a return, just that it will want to avoid you joining a class action lawsuit, various types of court actions (various localities have actually created small claims courts that allow for low volume things, some of which they will not be allowed to send lawyers to -- Microsoft quite famously lost a Windows downgrade case https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/27/woman_microsoft_windows_10_upgrades/ ) and instead attempt to resolve it individually through arbitration (which mathematically at least favours them, not to mention by the time you took a day or two off work and put in hours to get your ducks in a row as far as paperwork and what to discuss, maybe spoke to a legal type about what to expect which is usually not a cheap hobby...).

None of this says you can't return it/warranty it under the premise that it is not fit for task, just that when they do (and when they then give you the run around and claim all sorts of nonsense to avoid having to do anything) that you first have to do that arbitration bit, either resolving it there or getting permission to then go to a big boy court.
Thanks for the links!
Didnt know that about microsoft, very interesting.

Well..all i'm saying is that i personally did not agree to defective (and crappy) product (knowing nintendo made a brand thats synonimus with quality), even though legally, in the eyes of law i did "agree". Kinda feels like i'm deceived.

Thank god for the internet where i can see peoples experience so i don't buy till they fix it...ALSO i dont have money for extra controllers. So as i said, im gratefull for the internet, it saved my potentially lost money because Nintendo genuenly dont give a fuck.
 

FAST6191

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Thanks for the links!
Didnt know that about microsoft, very interesting.

Well..all i'm saying is that i personally did not agree to defective (and crappy) product (knowing nintendo made a brand thats synonimus with quality), even though legally, in the eyes of law i did "agree". Kinda feels like i'm deceived.

Thank god for the internet where i can see peoples experience so i don't buy till they fix it...ALSO i dont have money for extra controllers. So as i said, im gratefull for the internet, it saved my potentially lost money because Nintendo genuenly dont give a fuck.

While US consumer protection law is not quite as strong as elsewhere in the world (the UK based link doing pretty well as it is/was based on EU law of the day) -- the UK's rather nice sale of goods act was retired somewhat recently), and presumably also why things are a bit cheaper and companies often do the swap the currency symbol even if it not even close to a 1:1 exchange rate, you do still have some rights and surrendering those is more for specific circumstances (dealer trades, knowingly buying scrap and what have you) most of which are not buying something retail.

It is more that such agreements, which various courts have said are effective from time of purchase (though you might have the option to return something if you get home and it is not to your liking or it changes), mean you can't just pay your money to a class action and have all the cases wrapped up into one, getting something back a few years later and instead you get to try your hand at something that people spend years (usually the better part of a decade) to learn, and apparently this year the pass rate for the professional exam to get into the field in California (admittedly one of the harder states to do it in) is abysmal --


That said yeah I was mostly using your post as a jumping off point for something I wanted to mention and discuss. I do agree though that quality control and quality design in the first place does seem to be a lost art at Nintendo. In my case I am more concerned about the lack of games (anything the GBA and DS once had to make their libraries do it for me has long since vanished) but knowing that I am going to have to bust out the soldering iron, spudgers and screwdrivers does factor, even if I could just outright replace them or that standing up and tripping would see me faceplant into 5 soldering devices, a few hundred screwdrivers and a whole bunch of electrical supplies.
 
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