© Nintendo LifeAfter more than 25,000 consumer complaints in countries like France, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) has asked Nintendo to properly investigate the Joy-Con drift (thanks, Eurogamer).
Acting as the EU’s joint consumer program, BEUC has lodged its own complaints with the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities across Europe, claiming that in most cases (88%, in fact), the Joy- Con became evident in the first two years of ownership. BEUC claims that Nintendo is violating current rules to prevent “premature obsolescence and misleading omissions of essential consumer information”.
The organization is also asking Nintendo to fix all affected Joy-Cons for free and inform consumers that the controllers have a “limited life” thanks to the problem.
Monique Goyens, head of BEUC, said:
Consumers assume that the products they buy will last an appropriate period of time according to justified expectations, not having to pay for expensive replacements due to a technical defect. Nintendo must now come up with appropriate solutions for the thousands of consumers affected by this problem.
More than one class action has been brought against Nintendo on this matter, the most recent from Canada. Previous actions have been opened in France and the United States.
Nintendo sent mixed messages on the matter; while President Shuntaro Furukawa apologized for the problem in June last year, the US law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith said in October that Nintendo did not consider this a “real problem”.