Kotaku spotted that EA's most recent terms of service - which cover the online components of its games as well as the Origin download service - contain clauses that prohibit class actions or trials by jury. It's a move designed to keep EA out of expensive court trials, with disputes instead settled by arbitration, a significantly cheaper and vastly more private process where financial settlements are typically far smaller than the damages awarded in high-profile court cases.
"You understand that by this provision, you and EA are foregoing the right to sue in court and have a jury trial," the terms read. "You and EA agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding."
The terms of service contain an opt-out clause that requires users to notify EA of their decision in writing within 30 days of agreeing to them but, as the terms were last updated on August 25, that deadline will already have passed for most.
The move follows a landmark decision by the US Supreme Court in May. The highest level of the US legal system ruled that mobile operator AT&T was entitled to block customers from bringing class-actions, contradicting lower-level courts, one of which had branded AT&T's request "unconscionable."
It's also yet more negative publicity for Origin, the digital distribution service EA announced in June. Not only has it hit headlines for its assumed role in the removal of several EA games from rival download service Steam, but the publisher reworded a section of its EULA following privacy concerns over a clause which gave EA free rein to gather extensive data about its customers' computer usage.
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Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-updates-terms-service-forbid-class-actions
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