Looking ahead at UK games regulation in 2022
Isaac Davis
Wednesday 5th January 2022
With COVID dominating the UK Government's agenda over the past 18 months, much of the regulatory developments for games and technology were put on the backburner.
However, the final few months of 2021 saw the introduction of both the Information Commissioner's Office's Children's Code and the Committee of Advertising Practice's Guidance on advertising in-games purchases, and 2022 is likely to contain several other developments on the topics of monetisation and online safety.
Below are the six hot regulatory topics that we recommend games businesses should be aware of in the coming year:
Isabel Davies, Wiggin LLP
The industry was anticipating to hear the government's position on loot boxes in 2021, following its call for evidence issued in September 2020. However, it appears the government's response has been pushed back into early 2022 -- in part likely due to the huge number of responses the consultation received and also the recent appointment of Nadine Dorries as the new Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Although it is not known exactly what the government's response will be, the direction of travel will likely mean there will be at minimum some limitations or restrictions around loot boxes in the future.
The CMA's investigation into the auto-renewing subscriptions and consumer terms of the main console platforms, which kicked off in 2019, remains ongoing.
A similar investigation into anti-virus software provider, Norton, recently ended with several undertakings being voluntarily offered by Norton regarding its auto-renewing subscriptions (including offering pro-rata refunds and setting up an automated refund system) which may indicate what's to come.
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