Standing up to big corporations isn’t always easy. But one player has now won a case against Microsoft—without spending a single cent on expensive lawyers.
A post by a Brazilian gamer is currently causing a stir on Reddit. In total, the post has garnered over 8,000 upvotes and 300 comments. Specifically, it concernsa lawsuit against Microsoft, which is alleged to have deleted the user’s account.
Ordo_Liberalenlisted a public defender to provide free legal counsel, took the company to court, and won,even though the opposing side had twelve lawyers arguing against him. Microsoft is now legally obligated to restore the account along with all games and must also pay $400 in damages.
David vs. Goliath—Microsoft Loses in Court to an Angry Gamer
(Reddit)
Many commenters expressed surprise at the outcome, which is why Ordo_Liberal took the time to explain the background.He sued Microsoft with the help of a public defender—a service available to everyone in Brazil—to defend himself against large corporations under consumer protection laws. As a result, he incurred no legal costs for the lawsuit himself.
Microsoft, on the other hand, had countered him with twelve lawyers and a 300-page document, which ultimately did them no good. Many are also puzzled as to why the company even went to the trouble in the first place. Some suspect,that they wanted to make an example of him to deter further lawsuits—but that would have backfired quite badly. AsPixelationIXfor example:
Because they wanted to set a precedent and deter others from suing them or holding them accountable—that’s just how these corporations operate. They thought they could put financial or other pressure on the author of the post and easily win the case, but they didn’t count on the author fighting until the very end.
Consequently, the opposite could now happen, and the case could encourage other affected players to take legal action. However, it’s important to keep in mind that consumer protection lawsuits aren’t supported and promoted everywhere to the same extent as they are in Brazil.
After a hack, the account was supposedlyirretrievably lost
The whole situation stems from aold Reddit post by Ordo_Liberalthat he posted three months ago:
(Reddit)
After the user’s Xbox account was hacked, Microsoft was unable to recover it.That’s why support explained in the screenshot of the email he shared that the account—along with all his games—was lost, andOrdo_Liberal would simply have to create a new one and repurchase them
.
Microsoft’s hands were tied in this situation, and they could not restore access to games like Minecraft or to files in OneDrive (if any), because everything was encrypted and tied to the account, whose security credentials had since been changed by the hacker.
All they could do for the user was to permanently suspend the account so that it could no longer be misused. This post also caused quite a stir on Reddit at the time, garnering over 5,600 upvotes and nearly 700 comments. Aside from the outrage over the original email, there was also a great deal of confusion in the comments after another support representative, according to Ordo_Liberal, explained that the email was inaccurate and they were still investigating the case
.The original posterhas a cynical theory about this:
My theory? Let’s send out an email saying the account is lost forever—90 percent of people will just accept it and give up. I’m part of the 10 percent who sue, and now they suddenly remember how their job works.
So Microsoft picked the wrong person to mess with here. This is also confirmed by the subsequent court ruling, which went against the company.User Danijongoconfirms in the comments that the email usually doesn’t mean the account is truly lost forever:
Hey original poster, Microsoft Support has been aware of this for some time now. I experienced something similar myself last year and successfully got my account back based on the same message. It took a while, but it might still work out for you too.
It seems this is actually a standard procedure with support that players don’t have to just accept. The user doesn’t go into detail about the circumstances, but at least in this case, no lawsuit was apparently involved.
In any case, the player must be very happy to get their account back—and to receive a small cash bonus on top of that. What do you think about this situation? Have you ever found yourself in a tricky situation because of a hacked or otherwise lost account, and were you able to get help? Let us know in the comments!
In the link box above, you’ll find a few more interesting articles about right and wrong in gaming. We’ve also included a video for you about what’s currently happening at Microsoft and Xbox with layoffs, studio closures, and more.
