Policy Impacts
🇺🇸 US: Money and Virtual Currency in Video Games
April 2024: Cited by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its report ‘Banking in video games and virtual worlds’ (p 11, fn 41): Link.
🇬🇧 Parliamentary questions tabled after my research into loot box advertising on social media
April 2024: Lord Foster of Bath asked a further question on the UK industry self-regulation of loot boxes citing the upheld advertising complaints I made against members of the industry working group convened by the Government:
March 2024: Lord Foster of Bath tabled two questions in Parliament asking (I) what more can be done about illegal advertising of video games without disclosing loot box presence and (ii) whether it is appropriate for certain companies to remain on the industry self-regulation working group convened by the Government when they have broken advertising regulations:
January 2024: Drafted an evidence submission containing policy recommendations: Link.
🇬🇧 Gambling Related Harm APPG and Peers for Gambling Reform Gambling White Paper Inquiry
January and February 2024: Following the evidence session, a total of 11 parliamentary questions were tabled in Parliament by four major UK political parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish National Party) on compliance, enforcement, research, and law reform:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-26/15717
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-19/hl2537
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-01/hl2124
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-01/hl2125
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-02-01/12653
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12455
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12454
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12453
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12222
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12221
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-31/12220
January 2024: Invited to present and comment on loot box regulation before MPs and Peers: Link.
🇨🇳 Cyberspace Administration of China: Draft Guidelines on Screentime Limits
August 2023: Drafted an evidence submission containing policy recommendations: Link.
🇪🇸 Spain: Loot Box Regulation
June 2023: Invited to give a presentation on loot box regulation to the Responsible Gambling Advisory Council of the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling, Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
🇬🇧 UK Gambling Commission: Gambling Regulation
May 2023: Cited in relation to cryptocurrency gambling when recognising ‘Illegal gambling and crime’ as an evidence theme that should be given priority when developing the evidence base: Link.
🇳🇱 The Netherlands: Loot Box Regulation
June 2023: Invited to discuss consumer protection issues surrounding video games in an expert roundtable organised by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets.
May 2023: Invited to discuss loot box regulation using a consumer protection framework with the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets.
🇧🇷 Brazil: Loot Box Regulation
March 2023: Cited by the Federal District Justice Intelligence Center, First Vice-Presidency, Federal District and Territories Court of Justice in CIJDF Technical Note No. 9/2023 (pp 15–17).
🇺🇸 US: Loot Box Regulation
February 2023: Invited to discuss research findings and policy recommendations with the US Federal Trade Commission.
🇪🇺 EU: Loot Box Regulation
February 2023: Invited to support a study, and share my views, on EU consumer law commissioned by the European Commission.
February 2023: Invited to discuss research findings and policy recommendations with a Member of the European Parliament.
21 December 2023: Cited in the Committee report in relation to how industry self-regulation of loot boxes must be treated with scepticism due to my previous empirical research finding poor compliance (p. 27, para. 60): Link.
February 2023: Drafted an evidence submission (GAM0025 - Gambling regulation) containing policy recommendations: PDF File and HTML File.
🇬🇧 Northern Ireland All Party Group on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling Inquiry
June 2024: Quoted and cited extensively in the Inquiry Report section on loot boxes (pp. 29–31): Link.
April 2023: Presented on loot box regulation before members of the All Party Group at the Northern Ireland Assembly: Link.
January 2023: Drafted an evidence submission containing policy recommendations: Link.
June 2023: Referenced extensively in the Committee report (pp. 138–146): Link.
April 2023: Drafted an update upon receiving an official response from the German video game age rating organisation and commented on recent government policy proposals in Australia: Link.
March 2023: Drafted a further supplementary evidence submission to clarify factual matters that arose during the public hearing and to provide an update on legal developments in Austria: Link.
1 March 2023: Gave oral evidence to the Committee (timestamps: 10:40:00–11:03:38): Video Link; Hansard Link.
1 March 2023: Referenced extensively by other witnesses during the oral evidence session (pp. 7, 11–12, 43): Hansard Link
February 2023: Drafted a supplementary evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations on loot box presence warning labels and how the Australian Classification Board could do better: Link.
January 2023: Invited to give oral evidence and answer questions from Members of Parliament in a public hearing to be held on 1 March 2023.
December 2022: Drafted an evidence submission (Submission 127) containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
November 2022: Drafted an evidence submission (NFT0002 - Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the blockchain) containing policy recommendations: PDF File and HTML File.
🏴 Public Health Wales Gambling Health Needs Assessment
October 2022: My encyclopedia entry on loot boxes was cited in the report: Gambling Health Needs: Assessment for Wales [and in Welsh: Asesiad Anghenion Iechyd: Hapchwarae ar gyfer Cymru] (p 18).
🇬🇧 UK Government’s Video Games Research Framework
October 2022: Presented comments on the need to conduct empirical assessments of the effectiveness of adopted regulatory policies (e.g., the Children’s Code and other countries’ consumer protection measures) and qualitative research in general; the importance of adopting open science principles; and practical difficulties personally experienced with copyright law and fair dealing with data sharing.
February 2023: Provided further comments on and proposed drafting language for newly added sections concerning data sharing, fair dealing, and copyright law.
🇬🇧 UK Technical Working Group on the Industry Self-Regulation of Loot Boxes
September 2022: Invited by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to advise on academic research and policy implementation, taking into account the comparative regulatory experience of other countries.
September 2022: Attended a working group meeting considering academic perspectives and gave a presentation on suboptimal compliance with loot box probability disclosure industry self-regulation.
September 2022: Conducted a secondary analysis of data on the UK industry’s compliance with self-regulation: Link.
October 2022: My research was referenced by the UK Government in the House of Lords to support its adopted self-regulatory position (Hansard: HL Deb 13 Oct 2022, vol 824, col 890).
January 2023: Attended a second meeting during which I shared new research results and provided comments on draft policy documents following the meeting.
🇩🇰 Denmark: Consumer Rights in relation to Loot Boxes
August 2022: Invited to discuss research findings and policy recommendations with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority.
July 2022: 5 of my papers on loot box harms, their proximity to gambling, and various approaches to regulation were separately cited (p 24, fn 7; p 26, fn 11; p 28, fn 18; p 36, fn 43; & p 37, fn 45).
July 2022: Drafted an evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
🇦🇺 Harms associated with loot boxes, simulated gambling and other in-game purchases in video games: a review of the evidence
June 2022: Cited in an Australian Government-commissioned evidence review on loot boxes and other in-game purchases (pp.41–42).
🇧🇪 Belgium’s ‘Ban’ on Loot Boxes Proven Ineffective, (Further detail on the dedicated project page)
June 2022: Met with the Belgian Gaming Commission to share and discuss my empirical research findings, confirmed a number of legal points concerning Belgian gambling law and its licensing regime, and heard the Commission’s perspective on why the law has not been satisfactorily enforced.
August 2022: Following popular media reporting of my study, the Belgian Minister of Justice publicly accepted my findings criticising his government in a response published in local media: Link.
February 2023: Met with the Belgian Gaming Commission in a follow-up to discuss official actions taken following the report, future regulatory plans about gambling-like products, and my PEGI/IARC Google Play Store loot box presence warning label study
August 2021: Drafted an evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
July 2021: Drafted a letter to Andrew Wilkie MP (Australia) regarding how best to legally define a loot box: Link.
March 2021: Drafted an evidence submission on correctly interpreting Section 6(6) of the Gambling Act 2005 and identifying how the House of Lords Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry was incorrect in its interpretation of the law and made legally impossible policy recommendations (HL Paper 79, p 115, para 446): Link.
Baroness Barran, answering a House of Lords question, agreed with our interpretation: HL12486.
March 2021: My paper on conceptualising loot boxes as gambling was cited in the consultation paper (p 9, fn 30).
March 2021: Drafted an evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
January 2021: Drafted an evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
20 September 2021: The finalised Guidance was published: our response concerning probability disclosures and limited time offers was paraphrased (Consultation Response Evaluation, pp 4 & 15). Our policy recommendation of requiring loot box probability disclosures was not adopted, but my legal analysis as to how the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 apply was accepted, and my drafting recommendations were incorporated into the revised Guidance (pp 9–10).
🇬🇧 UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s Call for Evidence on Loot Boxes in Video Games
November 2020: Drafted an evidence submission containing empirical data and policy recommendations: Link.
17 July 2022: The Government response was published: my paper was cited in footnote 15 to support the adopted self-regulatory approach, and our evidence submission and empirical data concerning suboptimal probability disclosures and potential contraventions of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 were incorporated into paragraphs 202–207.
My paper was repeatedly cited in the independent rapid evidence assessment of the academic literature and empirical studies on loot boxes commissioned by the Government (pp 10, 18, 22, 23, 26, 42, & 43).
🇺🇸 California, United States: Class Action Complaints Regarding Loot Boxes, 2020 – 2021
Coffee v. Google LLC (5:20-cv-03901) (District Court, N.D. California, United States), 11 March 2021: Link (Amended Complaint: p 29, fn 24).
Ramirez v. Electronic Arts, Inc. (5:20-cv-05672) (District Court, N.D. California, United States), 13 August 2020: Link (p 22, fn 24).
Mai v. Supercell Oy (5:20-cv-05573) (District Court, N.D. California, United States), 11 August 2020: Link (p 8, fn 4).
Our paper on potential loot box harms, particularly virtual currencies’ deceptive nature, was cited.