On August 2, the China Consumers Association (CCA) released an analysis report for consumer complaints in the first half of 2022. Complaints filed about video game service providers make up one of the top 10 most filed categories of goods/services, and the CCA listed five major issues around it:
1. Game service providers induce consumption by false promotion. For example, they may exaggerate the probability of getting a specific in-game item/character from random pulls.
2. Game service providers change an in-game item's attributes without acquiring the players' permission.
3. Game service providers refuse or are unwilling to refund payments from minor players.
4. Game service providers terminate game services without providing a satisfying compensation solution for the game players.
5. Game developers, publishers, and app platforms shirk responsibility to each other, making it hard for consumers to defend their rights.
The CCA also shared several example cases for these points, including the case of Fashion Cloudy, which announced a service termination that would delete all player data; the CCA stopped the termination procedure. You may check the details in our previous article if interested.
Source: CCA