Roblox, a popular gaming platform is being sued by a Michigan child and her father, accusing the company of cheating children by deleting items they bought without giving them refunds.
The suit – filed May 25 – is seeking to represent millions of users (class action) – who bought items from Rolox’s Avatar Shop.
Roblox is an online platform that provides the building blocks users use to create their own games and play the games others have made, according to ClassAction.org:
“Roblox is not just one game – it is a collection of 18 million games called “experiences” that are created by independent developers. It was recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange, where it debuted at a $44 billion direct listing.”
The suit claims:
Roblox encourages users to purchase in-game content on the platform which it has made available—and from which Roblox earns real money—without performing any meaningful oversight to ensure that the content coming into its marketplace complies with the platform’s policies.
After its users have paid for their purchases, Roblox then performs sham “content moderation” by deleting content which it has determined violates its policies.
Roblox then refuses to refund anything to its users for their deleted content. When users report that their content has disappeared in error and demand refunds, Roblox cleverly deflects its irresponsible profit-seeking behavior by alleging that the content violated the platform’s policies,without any actual detail, offering Roblox cover to engage in a fraudulent content deleting scheme.
Despite its short and relatively new existence, Roblox has already earned significant negative attention as a dangerous space for its predominately child-focused user base.
For instance, there is a legion of complaints and publications describing how Roblox’s child users are exposed to predatory conduct from other—primarily adult—user son the platform, including, “[s]imulated violence, simulated sex, simulated rape. . . A lot of these things are happening on these platforms, and people are unaware that it’s happening.
The platform is also known to attract hackers and financial predators looking to steal in-game currency from other players.
