FIFA Ultimate Team isn’t gambling, Dutch appeals court says

A Netherlands court overturned a 2020 ruling that said the card packs in EA Sports’ FIFA Ultimate Team were a form of gambling, and rescinded a €10 million fine levied for violating Dutch gambling law.

The Dutch Administrative Jurisdiction Division, the highest court in the Netherlands, on Wednesday ruled that acquiring and opening FUT card packs was “not an isolated game” in and of itself, according to the Netherlands’ Council of State in a statement announcing the ruling (translated by Google). “They are part of a game of skill and add an element of chance to the game.”

“The vast majority of packs are obtained by and used for game participation,” the statement added. Further, “the tradability of the packs on the black market is relative. The black market mainly focuses on trading complete accounts rather than individual packs or their contents.”

Electronic Arts, in a statement released to Polygon, applauded this ruling. “This decision confirms our belief that no aspect of FIFA or FIFA Ultimate Team can be considered gambling under Dutch law,” the company said. “At Electronic Arts our approach to game design puts choice, fun, fairness and value first. Our priority has always been to make sure that our players in the Netherlands and across the world have a positive experience.”

In the original ruling, the Court of the Hague ordered Electronic Arts to remove FIFA card packs from its games and levied a €500,000 fine for each week it did not comply, up to a maximum of €10 million. EA stated that it will appeal the decision, but did not remove the packs.

Ultimate Team, a mode that spans EA Sports’ FIFA, Madden NFL, and NHL series, has generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Electronic Arts every fiscal year since 2018. In the March 2021 fiscal year, Ultimate Team microtransactions brought in $1.62 Billion.

Electronic Arts, however, complied in January 2019 with Belgian authorities. They pulled FIFA Points (the currency that players can purchase for real money) from the sale of Belgium. The September 2018 declaration by Belgian regulators that loot containers were in Belgium was made in September 2018. Overwatch, Global Offensive Counter-StrikeAnd FIFA 18 were an “illegal game of chance.” Blizzard Entertainment, Valve Corp., and 2K Games also disabled objectionable items for sale in Belgium inside their games.

The court’s full decision (in Dutch) is available online.