SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Epic Games says a real-life battle over lawyer fees has broken out in litigation over in-game purchases in the popular video game Fortnite.
Epic is also arguing that it already offered the plaintiff in a California case, known as K.W. in court papers, a refund once it found out K.W. was dissatisfied, the company said in a motion to dismiss filed March 15 in San Francisco federal court.
“The court, therefore, can grant K.W. no more relief than Epic Games already has provided him,” the motion says. “As another court held in an analogous circumstance when Epic Games honored a minor plaintiff’s request to disaffirm purchases pursuant to the Family Code, Epic Games’ provision of the requested refund nullified the transactions at issue and mooted the plaintiff’s claims.”
Lawyers at Bay Advocacy and One LLP filed the case Feb. 8 in California federal court, writing that “those who contract with minors do so at their own peril.” The lawsuit says parents are cut out of purchasing decisions while minors are unable to determine the real cost of the virtual items they buy.
“Players can earn V-Bucks while playing the game or purchase them with real money. Earning V-Bucks through game play is unreasonably difficult because of the amount of playtime required and because of the randomness with which V-Bucks are awarded,” the suit says.
A minor can’t enter into a contract relating to any personal property not in his or her immediate possession, the suit says. Those contracts are void and amounts paid pursuant to them are refundable, it adds.
K.W. had used his mom’s credit card, he says.
But the lawsuit’s real intention is to have K.W.’s lawyers at Bay Advocacy and One LLP pursue a challenge to attorneys fees that are pending in a separate class action, the lawsuit says.
That settlement provides up to $26.5 million in cash and other benefits and is awaiting approval in a North Carolina state court. Class members will also get 1,000 V-Bucks.
Firms involved in that settlement include Whitfield Bryson, McGuire Law, Devlin Law Firm and McMorrow Law. Their fee request is $11.3 million.
The K.W. case could be stayed pending final resolution of the North Carolina settlement proceedings. Epic Games says if the settlement goes through, the K.W. case should be tossed.
“The undisguised purpose of this case is to attack the Zanca settlement collaterally and thus advantage Plaintiffs’ counsel in a fee dispute with Zanca counsel,” Epic Games says.
“Indeed, those counsel rushed to court so quickly after learning of the Zanca settlement that they apparently lacked time to find plaintiffs who actually purchased something from Epic Games.”