The Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 22 and its predecessors has faced criticism due to the packs. Recently in the Netherlands, a court ruling punishing the loot box practices has been overturned.
What ruling is it about? In 2020, the District Court of The Hague imposed a ruling against the packs in Ultimate Team. According to Dutch law, these must be classified as gambling, which would require a corresponding license that was not present in the case of FIFA 21.
At that time, a penalty of a total of 500,000 euros weekly was decided if the game was not appropriately adjusted – with a maximum penalty of 10 million euros.
EA announced at the time that it wanted to appeal. And now, nearly a year and a half later, the ruling has indeed been revised.
Court says: Gambling license now not necessary
This has now been decided: As officially announced by the “Raad van State”, the highest administrative court has now made a different decision than the District Court of The Hague.
The court decided that acquiring and opening the packs in FIFA is not a “standalone game”, but rather part of an overarching game that requires certain skills. The packs would rather add an element of chance to the whole.
Furthermore, from the court’s perspective, the majority of the packs would be earned through the game and are only conditionally tradable on a “black market”. Here, whole accounts are rather sold than individual packs or their contents.
For these reasons, from the court’s perspective, the packs do not violate gambling laws and do not require a license. For this reason, the imposed penalty will also be lifted (via Raad van State).
What does EA say? EA stated to the portal Eurogamer that it is confirmed that FIFA or Ultimate Team cannot be classified as gambling under Dutch law: “At Electronic Arts, freedom of choice, fun, fairness, and value are our top priorities in game development. Our priority has always been to ensure that our players in the Netherlands and around the world have a positive experience” (via Eurogamer).
Packs constantly under criticism
What is the problem with the packs? While it is indeed possible to obtain numerous packs through just playing FUT – something through Division Rivals rewards, the Weekend League, challenges, and SBCs – it is also possible to directly purchase them with real money.
However, you never know what to expect in the pack. It can always happen that you put money into a pack that contains players that are mostly useless and worthless. Top cards, meanwhile, are very, very rare. The exception is only the limited preview packs, which show you what’s inside before opening. FIFA 22 introduced this to be fairer.
The pack practice is continually criticized by players. Additionally, major YouTubers often open sheer masses of packs for thousands of euros to get great players.
These content creators may recoup that money through clicks – but “normal” players, who take this as an example, likely do not have that option.
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