News EA's Origin gets bad-game refund option

The seven-day return period is actually part of the Distance Selling Regulations of the Consumer Protection Regulations. The DSR was introduced in 2000 to address the growing trend for consumers to buy things online, and is designed to give them the same opportunity to examine goods as they would have had they visited a physical shop. That's where it ends, though: you can examine the goods just as you could in a shop, which means no breaking seals and certainly no using the item. Get it out of its packaging and give it a whirl, and you've just lost your right of return under the DSR. Software, in fact, is called out specifically in Clause 13(1)(d): '[Unless the parties have agreed otherwise, the consumer will not have the right to cancel the contract by giving notice of cancellation pursuant to regulation 10 in respect of contracts—] for the supply of audio or video recordings or computer software if they are unsealed by the consumer.'

Obviously, there are no seals or packaging with a downloadable game - but would a shop allow you to install the game on your PC, try it out, then return it within seven days if you didn't like it? Once, perhaps, but not these days - and so the DSR don't apply either. If the game was substantially unlike what you were promised, however - as would be the case if you bought a certain zombie-themed survival game and discovered it was missing major features and bugged to all hell - you could request a refund under the Sale of Goods Act as the item in question being unfit for purpose. Unlike the DSR, there's no real time limit for a claim under SOGA - although if you tried to claim a refund on a washing machine you bought in 1995 and have used ever since, good luck: the courts look for "reasonable" claims, like something dying just out of warranty but within what you would expect to be a fair lifespan for an item of its category and price.

TL;DR: You can't return a game under DSR, but you might be able to under SOGA.

 

Oh, absolutely - that would be a perfect example of something being unfit for purpose under SOGA. Trouble is in convincing the shop staff of that fact - something immeasurably easier these days: back then, you would have had to rely on a magazine writing a feature on how badly broken the game was to have documentary evidence of its unsuitability; these days, all the evidence you could ever want a is a quick Google away.

That, on the other hand, is unlikely to be a reason to return under SOGA - assuming that your hardware didn't meet the requirements printed clearly on the back of the box. If it didn't, then it's caveat emptor - buyer beware. If, on the other hand, it did meet the requirements and was still unplayable, then you've got an argument of false advertising or unfit for purpose.

None of this, of course, legitimises downloading pirated games. If you won't buy a game without trying a demo first, and there's no demo, then don't buy the game. If publishers see that not releasing a demo actively hurts sales, they'll start releasing demos; if they see that not releasing a demo drives piracy, however, they'll just work to add yet more consumer-hurting layers of DRM into the mix in the hope that this time it'll work. Alternatively, take up EA's offer and try-before-you-buy without the parrot on your shoulder.