The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) is appealing to the European Commission to investigate complaints about Nintendo Joy-Con. The BEUC group represents more than 40 consumer organizations across the European Union, and the umbrella organization says it has received nearly 25,000 complaints from consumers across Europe about faulty Joy-Con controllers.
“According to consumer testimonials, game controllers broke down in 88 percent of cases within the first two years of use,” the BEUC said (via Eurogamer). The group has now lodged a complaint with the European Commission, claiming that Nintendo is involved in premature aging and ‘misleading failure of important consumer information’.
Nintendo Switch owners have been reporting issues since the launch of the console’s removable Joy-Con controllers, nearly four years ago. Most reports have centered on strange joystick drive issues that create false inputs. Nintendo will repair the floating Joy-Con controllers for free, but even the refreshed Switch models are experiencing issues.
“BEUC and its members are very concerned that Nintendo is going to sell a product that is constantly being reported by consumers to Nintendo and in the media that it is prematurely failing,” said Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of the BEUC, in a statement. letter to the European Commission. . “The aging of the product means that after a short time, consumers often have to buy a new set of game controllers, also because of the disproportionate cost and the practical burdens that consumers face when trying to do repairs.”
The European Commission will now have to decide whether to launch a formal investigation into the Joy-Con drift issues. Nintendo is also facing two possible class action lawsuits. One was filed in 2019 by law firm Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith, and a second was filed in California in October 2020 over the same issue.