Sony has revised its online terms of service, adding a new clause which prevents disgruntled users binding together and launching a class-action lawsuit against the company - unless it agrees to it.
The clause, headed Binding Individual Arbitration, reads: "Any dispute resolution proceedings, whether in arbitration or in court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action...unless both you and the Sony entity with which you have a dispute specifically agree to do so in writing following initiation of the arbitration."
The move follows Sony's recent coalescence of its online services under one banner, Sony Entertainment Network, and is clearly designed with the aftermath of the April attack on PSN in mind.
Following the attack, which resulted in the personal data of over 100 million users being compromised, Sony was hit with several class-action lawsuits. The first was filed in April by Alabama resident Kristopher Johns, 36, who accused Sony of failing to take "reasonable care to protect, encrypt and secure the private and sensitive data of its users."
In May, a Canadian law firm initiated class-action proceedings, seeking a billion dollars in damages, and that was followed in June by a San Diego filing which accused Sony of laying off "a substantial percentage" of Sony Online Entertainment staff a fortnight before the attack.
That, however, may be the tip of the iceberg. In July, one of Sony's insurers, Zurich American, asked a court to rule it was not liable for Sony's mounting legal defence costs. Its filing claimed that Sony was facing 55 separate lawsuits over its handling of the PSN outage.
While the clause sounds unenforcable, it has legal precedent. In May, the US Supreme Court ruled that mobile operator AT&T was entitled to block customers from binding together to bring class-action lawsuits, despite lower levels of the US legal system having branded its attempt to do so as "unconscionable."
Source: Gamasutra
Comments
5Yeah, let's see that T&C stand-up in court. Bloody scum-sucking lawyers will try anything on.
The sad thing is they know that none of us have the guts or financial fortitude to take them on, which is why they do these things. It's a genuinely horrible state of affairs.
Cutting off access to Class Action suits (traditionally the only recourse for us "poorer" folks) is just another nail in Sony's already overstuffed coffin. All I can do is "Protest with my wallet." So that's what I'll do.
Bye bye Sony. It was a good run. But then you got too greedy for me. So it's time I started seeing someone else.
+1.
How dare they try to limit my legal options. Certain consumer rights should be inalienable, and the fact they're trying to cast off the repercussions of their shoddy security and behaviour is appalling!
Everytime it looks like Sony has changed their ways they pull shit like this.
The answer is simple ... Call SONY 's bluff. Sign up with SONY and then call the lawyers representing the class action suit in your country and add your name to the list. Then send SONY a letter of your intent to legitimize your rights. SONY intends to cancell your account anyway if you stand up for your rights . So THEY lose ... NOT YOU.... the customer...AND the customer is ALWAYS RIGHT. IF this is SONY 's customer service and their way of disrespecting OUR rights... then they don't deserve to participate in OUR market place. They are not above the law. They are disrespecting OUR rights with this latest legal maneuver...which just shows you the lip service that the corporate leaders paid everyone with their bowing apologetically for the media. SONY deserves a damn good spanking.