The ALRUD Team Defends the Interests of a Global Leader in Entertainment Software and Gaming Equipment

ALRUD has successfully defended the interests of a ****global leader in entertainment software and gaming equipment****. Users of the latter’s gaming platform had brought a class action following the suspension of paid transactions in certain countries.

The class action, seeking the restoration of access to the software, compensation for moral damages, and the recovery of penalties, was brought in defence of a group initially consisting of 28 users. The case has been pending for more than two years and has gone through two rounds of consideration by the trial court. Over this time, more than 300 users joined the class action, and the total property claims rose above USD 30 million.

Moreover, the class representative attempted to "torpedo" the proceedings by filing an individual lawsuit with identical claims and similar circumstances in another court. The intention was to obtain a judgment that could set a precedent for the outcome of the class action.

The ALRUD team developed a comprehensive defence strategy in response to both the "torpedo" lawsuit and the primary class action. The team filed motions to forego consideration of the claim and terminate both proceedings based on contractual clauses (accepted by the users of the game consoles), as well as to "reclassify" the class action under the rules of Chapter 22.3 of the Civil Procedure Code.

The ALRUD team succeeded in proving that the class action had been brought in violation of the jurisdictional rules causing the trial court to terminate the proceedings without considering the case. For the “torpedo” lawsuit, a similar result was achieved which was upheld by the courts in all instances.

The project was handled by ALRUD Dispute Resolution and Commercial Practices, led by Partner Sergey Petrachkov and included Senior Associate Ksenia Erokhina and Associates Vladislav Lapushkin and Maria Karpenko.