SONY PLAYSTATION
Sony may face damages of up to £5 billion if a new legal claim filed against the gaming giant is successful.
A collective action filed against Sony at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal on Friday 19th August is accusing Sony of ‘ripping off’ UK customers. The claim alleges that Sony has been abusing its market-dominant position to impose unfair terms and conditions on game developers and publishers as well as imposing ‘excessive pricing in relation to digital games and in-game content’ on the PlayStation Store. This includes charging 30% commission on every digital game on in-game purchase made through the Playstation Store.
Anyone who purchased digital games or add-on content via the PlayStation Store since August 19, 2016 (ie 6 years before the action was started) will be automatically included in the claim unless they choose to opt-out.
It should be noted that 30 % is the same amount of commission taken by Microsoft on sales of Xbox games as well as by Apple from transactions in its App Store. Apple is facing a similar action, which if successful would see 19.6 million consumers who purchased paid apps in the App Store since October 2015 share up to £1.5 billion in compensation.
SCHOOL UNIFORM
The cost of school uniforms has long been an issue. With the cost of living crisis escalating and people being forced to choose between heating or eating steps need to be taken as a matter of urgency especially to assist the most vulnerable.
The new law aimed to protect against unnecessary school uniform costs is therefore welcome. It will come into effect from September 2022.
The new legislation is not, however, perfect. Branding is required to be kept to a minimum. It is not, however, banned so some children will continue to wear some items such as blazers with school logos. This needs to be addressed as it still highlights the difference between those who can afford official school uniform and those who can’t. That stigma needs to be removed.
Further, schools which need to secure a new uniform contract with a supplier have until December 2022 to put that in place. Those schools will then have until the start of the September 2023 school year to introduce the new uniform.
If you are effected in anyway get in touch.
BARRISTERS STRIKE – CRIME DOESN’T PAY
80% of Criminal Bar Association Barristers have voted in favour of plans to cancel their bi-weekly court walkouts and run a continuous strike from 5 September.
The strike is over pay. The image of a well-proportioned Barrister quaffing Cristal Champagne whilst dining on lark’s tongue in aspic belies the truth. According to The Lawyer whilst at the top end of the profession 2 per cent of barristers take home over £1m per year nearly 12 per cent earn less than £30,000. Barristers are self-employed. Out of the fees received they also need to cover expenses. Delays in payment – for example where legal aid fees are not paid until the end of a case – mean many are living below the poverty line and being forced to look at alternative professions. This must be addressed.
The call is on the UK government to increase legal aid fees by 25%. The Government has offered 15%.
In the meantime, HM Courts and Tribunal Services (HMCTS) figures show the backlog of cases has increased over the past three months. According to the latest data from HMCTS, 58,540 cases are waiting to be heard in the UK’s Crown Courts. That figure will obviously increase dramatically the longer this is unresolved.
Crime does not pay. In fact several earn less as a Barrister than they would do working as a barista in a coffee shop. This must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
RIGHTING WRONGS: INFECTED BLOOD – £100K INTERIM COMPENSATION.
Following many years of campaigning, it has been announced that £100,000 will be paid to each victim of the infected blood scandal. Payment will be made by the end of October as interim compensation. Chair of the public inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, acknowledged that is a compelling case to make payments quickly. I have been working with a number of victims helping to shine a spotlight on their cases and to ensure the wrongs they have suffered are put right. Their stories are harrowing. There is also an alarming pattern in that it was often several years before they were diagnosed.https://www.octopus.tv/100000-interim-payment-to-victims-of-the-infected-blood-scandal/
Whilst this is a victory for our continued campaign to right wrongs it is only a start. There are several others who also need to be recognised including parents who lost children, children who lost parents, those infected after 1991 and those whose records have been lost. Kit Malthouse has emphasised that this interim payment is only a start and the net will be widened.
TINDER – RIGHT SWIPING WRONGS! THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
Tinder, the “world’s most popular dating app” will celebrate its 10th anniversary on 12th September.
Several singles who are ready to mingle have used the app in the hope of finding love.
Whilst there may be plenty of fish in the sea beware as some of them are catfish!
A catfish is a predatory fish that scuttles along the bottom of the ocean feeding on smaller or more vulnerable fish.
The word has been used to describe people who create fake IDs online and reel in their victims by deceiving and manipulating them. Catfish fool their victims into thinking they are in a relationship and then prey on their victims’ vulnerabilities to create emotional dependency in order to extract something such as money or emotional pain from them.
A 2021 survey of more than 2,000 UK adults for BetMinded revealed that 20% of respondents had been catfished, with 38% of 25-34 year-olds admitting they had fallen for a fake profile.
Sweet Bobby, the podcast series, revealed how a London woman in her 30s was conned into a 10 year online relationship with someone pretending to be her boyfriend and the brilliant Netflix show The Tinder Swindler documented howvarious women were scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars via the dating app.
Those real-life catfishing documentaries have sparked fresh debate about internet safety laws with many calling for online deception to become a specific criminal offence.
At present catfishing is not an offence in its own right. A Parliamentary review of social media and the law by the Lords Communications Committee in 2014 concluded that sufficient laws were in place to prosecute criminal offences committed over social media. Those include laws against fraud, harassment and malicious communication.
Planned changes to the Online Safety Bill will also oblige social media sites and search engines “to stamp out fraudsters and scammers on their platforms”, said the government.
Under the proposals search engines and platforms which host user-generated content, video-sharing or live streaming will have a duty of care to protect users of their services from fraud committed by other users this should include ‘catfishing’ romance scams.
As always, let me know what you think….
ANDREW EBORN – RIGHTING WRONGS
GET IN TOUCH
Andrew believes that there are many injustices which do not get the media attention they deserve, or indeed desperately need the oxygen of publicity for their cause. This is where Andrew hopes to help. By focusing on the injustice and assisting to promote, Andrew is keen to give an initial helping hand in any way he can make possible.
If there are particular issues you would like Andrew Eborn to investigate please provide information here so he may be able to assess if he can provide you with help.
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