It looks like it will continue to be impossible for Nintendo eShop customers in Germany and Norway to cancel pre-orders, according to a new court ruling. The gaming company has been on both sides of numerous lawsuits over the years, most recently having a $10 million case against Nintendo, which was originally passed in 2017 and claimed they infringed upon pre-existing patents when creating the Wii controller, then be overturned two years later. The eShop itself has also seen some small controversies, with Nintendo pulling an adult game from the service last year after a lack of adequate censorship.
Although the company has won the majority of their most recent lawsuits, this hasn't always been the case. Famously, Nintendo lobbied against the practice of video game rentals back in the 1990's, thinking them detrimental to their sales numbers. Although they eventually lost that fight in the United States, the end result was a run of games which have been labeled "Nintendo Hard" by history, a title which describes a game made purposefully difficult in order to make it near-impossible for players to complete in a three-night rental time period. Nintendo was even involved in a lawsuit with the rapper Soulja Boy over console and game rights.
It looks like Nintendo is on a roll with their legal wins, having recently won a case against the German Consumer Protection Authority. According to a report by Nintendo Everything, the Norwegian Consumer Council originally raised concerns about players' inability to cancel their eShop pre-orders back in February of 2018, which eventually led to the German authority taking Nintendo to court over the matter. However, its was officially ruled Nintendo will be able to continue on with business as usual, at least for the time being.
The court's decision has reportedly been appealed, but it will likely be up to a year and a half before any future action is taken. In the meantime, players who pay for and then pre-load a game from the Nintendo eShop will continue to be unable to cancel their purchases, even if the game has not yet been released to the public. This is in stark contrast to the way pre-orders work in other organizations like GameStop, where players can cancel their purchase and receive cash refunds up until the game arrives.
The ability to refund a pre-order is something of a complex situation, with the pre-loaded data on the console essentially meaning a player already owns part of the product, even if it's currently inaccessible. Truly, anyone who makes a purchase, be it a pre-order or a regular one, should be one-hundred percent sure they want the product, but if something hasn't yet been delivered and they change their mind it seems only natural to let them have their money back. Unfortunately for Nintendo players in Germany and Norway, it's not illegal, and it doesn't look like it will be any time soon.
Source: Nintendo Everything