A family in Norway is horrified: To keep their 7-year-old son calm during a boring drive, the parents gave the boy his mother’s phone to play the game “FIFA Mobile”. However, the little one spent €1,000 in 3 days and bought strong players with it. When the parents requested the money back from the company behind the game, they found understanding from EA, but the money was gone.
How did the situation arise?
- In mid-August, a Norwegian couple drove with their 7-year-old son to a zoo near Kristiansand, as TV2 reports.
- To keep their son occupied during the boring drive, the parents gave him his mother’s phone with the FIFA Mobile soccer game: According to the Apple Store, the game has an age recommendation of “from 4 years”, and on Google Play, it has an “Everyone” rating.
- The boy was happy, occupied himself in the back seat with the smartphone and said: “I now have a better team than dad” – the parents had no idea what was happening.
Boy sinks €1,000 in loot boxes for Dream Team
What did the boy do? Within 3 days, the boy had purchased booster packs worth €1,006 in FIFA Mobile and assembled a “dream team” of virtual players.
As can be seen in a screenshot, the boy had treated himself to special cards from top players like Casillas, Lahm, or C. Ronaldo.
– In a mode in FIFA, you can assemble a team with virtual players.
– These players are represented by cards that depict real football players.
– Good players in real life are also strong in the game.
– You can acquire the cards through “booster packs”. These are loot boxes containing randomly selected cards.
Mother wants to get the money back, hits a wall
How did the parents react? Especially the mother was in shock. She is quoted as saying, “I have never been so angry”, because the money was actually intended to pave a path.
Attempts to retrieve the money through Google Play or EA failed. EA showed cooperation and said: Everything will work out, but nothing happened in the matter.
As the angry mother continued to push for answers, she finally received the response: EA is sorry, but a refund of the money is impossible.
How did it end? It was only when the TV2 website, which had learned of the story, intervened and specifically inquired at EA that the problem was resolved within days: Suddenly, a refund was possible after all.
The mother said they checked their account every 15 minutes to see if the money was back, but it just didn’t come. At around 5 AM, she woke up and the money was in the account.
It felt like she had won €1,000, she says. Now they want to pave the path and buy a football and football shoes for their son.
Then he could be outside playing football instead of sitting inside and gaming.
EA’s statement places responsibility on the parents
This is what EA says: In a statement to TV2 a few days after the incident, EA strongly recommends that the parents implement a robust access control, which should apply to all games and devices that children have access to, including mobile platforms.
If there are options in games to make in-game purchases, this is clearly labeled. Parents can find out more.
EA states that they understand that children can make unauthorized purchases and when this happens for the first time, EA’s teams work to resolve the problem, refund the money, and assist parents in establishing control to prevent it from happening again.
Why this did not happen immediately in the case of the Norwegian family was left unanswered by EA.
EA has long been criticized for their loot boxes:
EA calls loot boxes a rather ethical surprise mechanic
The title image is a symbolic image: photo by Trenton Stevens on Unsplash
