Electronic Arts—Brazilian court fined Electronic Arts R$20M over Apex Legends and EA FC loot boxes marketed to children
A Federal District (Brasilia) court ruled on June 17, 2026 that Electronic Arts and twelve other gaming and platform companies failed to protect children from randomized 'loot box' purchase mechanics, in a civil action brought by Brazil's National Association of Child and Adolescent Defense Centers (ANCED). EA was fined R$20 million (~$3.92M) over loot-box mechanics in Apex Legends and EA FC, as part of a R$298M (~$58.4M) collective judgment against the named companies. The court ordered EA, within 90 days, to display explicit randomness warnings, disclose item-drop probabilities, deploy reliable (non-self-declared) age verification blocking minors from loot-box purchases, and provide refunds for purchases made by minors without parental authorization. The ruling is subject to appeal.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child Safety | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Consumer Protection | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.322 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
Federal District court judgment orders EA to pay R$20M and implement child-safety measures for Apex Legends/EA FC loot boxes
Brazil's 1st Court of Childhood and Youth of the Federal District ruled that Electronic Arts, along with twelve other gaming and tech companies, must pay fines and implement age verification, probability disclosure, and refund mechanisms for loot-box mechanics accessible to minors.