The UFC-Que Choisir association has taken legal action regarding the wear and tear of Nintendo Switch controllers.
This Wednesday, the consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir will file a complaint against Nintendo for "planned obsolescence". Already in 2019, the association issued a warning against the Japanese company. She accuses him of marketing controllers that quickly break down. This wear is called Joy-Con drift, because it's named after the Switch console's detachable controllers. The version on television and in portable mode is questioned, but also that used only in a portable way, the Switch lite.
In just 48 hours, 5,000 testimonials were collected by UFC-Que Choisir. The complaints are the same: the failure of the controllers is recurrent. If last year, a first alert was published, the general manager of Nintendo France had spoken on the subject. He quickly repaired the levers. Moreover, this also concerned those who were also "Out of Warranty." Even so, the problems seem to persist, according to UFC-Que Choisir as the testimonies have multiplied. In a statement, the association explains: "Since the dysfunction has been known for 3 years, it is essential that the Japanese giant now follow a curative rather than corrective scenario."
What problems do we encounter with the controllers?
These would be phantom movements to which the controllers respond. This "which prevents consumers from using their game consoles properly." Result: when you guide a character with his controller, he does not go in the desired direction. The association defines this for two reasons: "premature wear of the circuit boards, and a leakage which results in a worrying amount of debris and dust within the joystick." Note that this is a failure that was noticed less than a year after purchasing these controllers. 25% of consumers saw the failure occur within 6 months of purchase.
This is an outage that appears no matter how much time you spend playing on the Nintendo Switch. Some have noticed that this is the case even when they play less than 5 hours per week. A low use of the console therefore shows this technical problem.
How is the law on planned obsolescence defined
The UFC-Que Choisir association therefore decided to file a complaint against Nintendo Switch for "planned obsolescence." It is "The set of techniques by which a marketer aims to deliberately shorten the life of a product in order to increase its replacement rate." The penalties can be up to "Two years in prison and a € 300,000 fine, or even 5% of annual turnover."