Overview
- Nintendo of Europe accepted a €35 million settlement on Monday after France’s DGCCRF National Investigation Service concluded the company misled consumers about Joy‑Con stick drift between 2018 and 2023.
- The regulator found Nintendo knew of responsiveness and unintended‑movement problems as early as 2018 but only publicly addressed the issue in 2020, which it says discouraged some owners from using after‑sales repair services and led to replacement purchases.
- Nintendo said the payment was an amicable resolution that does not constitute an admission of guilt and agreed to publish a notice about the ruling on its French homepage.
- The action follows a complaint from consumer group UFC‑Que Choisir and comes after Nintendo expanded a 2023 European repair policy that offered free out‑of‑warranty Joy‑Con repairs for affected users.
- Joy‑Con drift is a hardware fault where analog sticks register unwanted movement or stop responding, and the French fine is the first major regulatory penalty tied to the long‑running problem even though many earlier lawsuits in other countries were dismissed.