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Judge Says EA Battlefield 4 Execs Engaged In "Puffery," Not Fraud
DemonOnIce writes with a story, as reported by Ars Technica, that a federal judge in San Francisco has dismissed a proposed securities fraud class action lawsuit connected to Battlefield 4's bungled rollout. From the report:
EA and several top executives were sued in December and were accused of duping investors with their public statements and concealing issues with the first-person shooter game. The suit claimed executives were painting too rosy of a picture surrounding what ultimately would be Battlefield 4's disastrous debut on various gaming consoles beginning last October, including the next-generation Xbox One. But US District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco said their comments about EA and the first-person shooter game were essentially protected corporate speak. "The Court agrees with defendants that all of the purported misstatements are inactionable statements of opinion, corporate optimism, or puffery," Illston ruled Monday.
The link in the summary leads to "Sapphire manufacturer and Apple agree to part ways “amicably”" GJ Editors
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defined puffery as a "term frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined."
The FTC stated in 1984 that puffery does not warrant enforcement action by the Commission. In its FTC Policy Statement on Deception, the Commission stated: "The Commission generally will not pursue cases involving obviously exaggerated or puffing representations, i.e., those that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously." e.g., "The Finest Fried Chicken in the World."
Source
In other words, caveat emptor.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Sounds like when you have an unnatural sexual relationship with a small black and white sea bird.
from ars technica...
Puffery is a well-defined term by the FTC, but still ends up as a "know it when you see it" thing sometimes. Here's an FTC handout discussing it with consumers. The basic point is that if a company says that something is generically awesome, that's probably just puffery and not actionable. If they use measurable numbers, talk about specifics, or directly compare it to one or more competitors, that can require proof and be actionable. Note that comparatives "our product A is better than B" are more likely to be actionable than superlatives "our product A is the best."
Those investors will never take EA seriously again.
those that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously." e.g., "The Finest Fried Chicken in the World."
So I wonder how that works out in the context of:
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, do these sound like the actions of a man whose had ALL he could eat?
Is "all you can eat", from a legal point of view, considered an "exaggerated or puffing representation", i.e. one "that the ordinary consumers do not take seriously"? Or would Homer's complaint be taken up by the FTC?
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
You know... I was downtown, selling some fine imported watches to passers by, and a police officer did not find my excuse of "Puffery" nearly as understandable as this judge seems to. Apparently Puffery isn't not allowed at $100, but is at $100million. Interesting indeed. I need to raise my price point!
...inactionable statements of opinion, corporate optimism, or puffery,
Yes. And in my opinion, CEOs, PR people and sales people are all lying sacks of shit.
The burden of proof is always on business.
Corporations are not just people, but protected people now.
Table-ized A.I.
If you are investing in the video games industry you had better know what you're getting yourself into. The notion that the words of the executives of the company has any bearing on the end result of a product they have no hand in, don't understand and is ultimately a subjective experience is absurd. It's like making investment decisions based off of Disney executives claiming Star Wars episode 7 is going to be the best Star Wars movie ever.
There is no memory shortage. yes I have heard of XFCE. Go away.
You mean Ringling Brothers ISN'T actually the greatest show on earth?
Technology is complicated. Creative stuff is complicated. As a result, when you have them both together that's an area where shit goes arse over tit sometimes. It's probably the exception when it doesn't.
If you don't like that, invest in a company that makes toasters.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Even if they weren't intentionally lying, telling investors information that is effectively false is at best being self delusional, which is professionally irresponsible.
If I didn't lock the bank vault at night, for several years in a row, and my sole job was to protect the vault, then someone broke in and stole everything, could I get away with "puffery" because I told others, with confidence, that I as protecting the vault?
How about a surgeon who is asked to do a surgery, but by no means should because he had no experience. But because the surgeon felt "optimistic", someone died. Ohh, it was just "puffery".
Call it what it is, willfully ignorant lying.
Oh ... now if you state things other than facts ..... aka: mistruths .... it is legal.
With the PHB somehow becoming a judge?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Wow, the ability to come up with "he did it, but it' wasn't bad enough to warrant legal action" excuses has had a huge renaissance.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Money talks, bullshit walks.
Nobody can dispute the error, but to assume you know what a person's job entails is asinine. Unless of course you can demonstrate what their contract contains to ensure that their only responsibility is as an editor.
As a guess, all of the Slashdot editors are editors for a few minutes a day (at most) and not provided time to fully research topics and validate content.
I don't expect them to lay out their job responsibility list any time a mistake happens and instead propose that instead of attacking a person, attack the management. Dice management has not done a very good job with other things (*cough* BETA! *cough*) so why would you assume they are doing well managing employee responsibilities?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
"I didn't lie, I just gave false statement"
Also known as the Bill Clinton defense, with respect to his testimony before a federal judge under oath.
For I too have, far too often, put some money into something EA said would be awesome and it turned out to be a pile of crap. With time, you'll learn to be suspicious of anything EA says. Next year when they do "Restockening, the Sequil", I assure you that it will suck every bit as much as the original did. If you wait a few months before buying, you might be able to pick their stock up cheap (or possibly even free) during a Steam sale. That's just how you need to play the game, if you don't want to waste your money.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The game is still a steaming pile of crap, I still warn people away from it and anything else that comes from that franchise ever again.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Any reasonable person should have recognized puffery -- he was inflating his claims.
Ditto, warned people away, even bought my friend cs:go after I initially had him buy BF4, so we could still play together
It was made by EA, so there was a 0% chance that I would ever buy or play it to begin with.
If one tells it like it is puffery is fraud just as a salesman's soap is fraud. If a product is desireable enough no sales efforts are required. The reason that we have marketing and sales is that most products really are not desireable at all.
I propose the word 'Puffoon' to mark the case, see Wikipedia for my inspiration.
"The hallmark of humanity is the ability to move beyond sensory inputs" - Mary Helen Immordino-Yang