By Sagar V. Mankar Ubisoft is under fire as a class action lawsuit has been filed against the company in the United States. The lawsuit, filed on October 3, 2024, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses Ubisoft of improperly sharing customer data with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
According to GamesIndustry, the lawsuit alleges that users’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected and transferred to Meta through the Pixel tracking tool when they make purchases or access Ubisoft’s store while logged into Facebook. The plaintiffs claim this happens without user consent, violating privacy laws such as the Video Privacy Protection Act.
The lawsuit highlights that Meta’s Pixel tool cannot be implemented on a website without the “knowledge and cooperation” of its owner, implicating Ubisoft directly. The plaintiffs argue that Ubisoft knowingly utilized Pixel to gather marketing data from user activities on its site without seeking consent from affected users.
This legal trouble adds to Ubisoft’s already challenging year. Earlier in 2024, the company faced significant setbacks with poor performances from Skull and Bones and Star Wars Outlaws, causing a sharp decline in stock prices. These struggles led to delays for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and prompted changes to Ubisoft’s business model, including more consumer-friendly policies like eliminating early unlock phases and platform exclusivity.
Further complicating matters, recent reports suggest that Tencent, a Chinese gaming giant, and Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family are exploring a joint buyout to take Ubisoft private.
Sources: GamesIndustry