Didn’t it already reach the threshold last year and the government (or the civil servant in charge of rejecting every petition) closed it saying that current consumer protection laws already apply?
They didn’t close it. They provided an answer early. That as they see it, existing trade and consumer law should cover games and they don’t plan on carving out extra legislation for it but they will “keep an eye on it”.
Now it is over 100k, it doesn’t actually mean anything more than they “might” debate it in parliament.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I signed the petition, and I think they SHOULD look into it. But, my old cynical bones tell me that even if they do have a debate in parliament. It will be at a time when there will be 5 MPs in there, who will have nothing to say on the matter and it will be swept under the rug with a further canned statement drawn up by some civil servant in whitehall talking about consumer law just like the statement before.
Most western governments are on the side of industry, and that includes game developers. I cannot imagine they care about this subject and will do the bare minimum lip service to move past it.
I hope I’m wrong.
I do have a bit more hope for the European parliament. Just a little. They do seem to be a bit more pro-consumer. That is the one that matters most IMO.
The UK petition ends before the EU petition so my guess is that they’ll give us some canned response before the end of the month. In their heads that will end the discussion.
Parliament will have 7 days after it closes before their planned summer recess. You think they will work that quickly to churn out a boilerplate debate?
Didn’t it already reach the threshold last year and the government (or the civil servant in charge of rejecting every petition) closed it saying that current consumer protection laws already apply?
My understanding is that they misunderstood the petition, so this new one is rephrased in an attempt to avoid another misinterpretation
Politicians seem very good at misunderstanding things when it suits them.
It was extremely clear what the previous petition was, it was just they weren’t interested in doing anything so they intentionally misunderstood.
Is that why they left “from” out of the title?
Fingers crossed!
They didn’t close it. They provided an answer early. That as they see it, existing trade and consumer law should cover games and they don’t plan on carving out extra legislation for it but they will “keep an eye on it”.
Now it is over 100k, it doesn’t actually mean anything more than they “might” debate it in parliament.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I signed the petition, and I think they SHOULD look into it. But, my old cynical bones tell me that even if they do have a debate in parliament. It will be at a time when there will be 5 MPs in there, who will have nothing to say on the matter and it will be swept under the rug with a further canned statement drawn up by some civil servant in whitehall talking about consumer law just like the statement before.
Most western governments are on the side of industry, and that includes game developers. I cannot imagine they care about this subject and will do the bare minimum lip service to move past it.
I hope I’m wrong.
I do have a bit more hope for the European parliament. Just a little. They do seem to be a bit more pro-consumer. That is the one that matters most IMO.
I don’t think you’re wrong, and I think the EU petition will go the same way, but it’s still worth signing regardless.
As a Brit I have more faith in the EU parliament doing something good than ours.
Completely agree. It should not deter anyone.
If the EU petition makes it, then it will provide the UK petition support too as part of whatever debate goes on about it.
The UK petition ends before the EU petition so my guess is that they’ll give us some canned response before the end of the month. In their heads that will end the discussion.
Parliament will have 7 days after it closes before their planned summer recess. You think they will work that quickly to churn out a boilerplate debate?
Yeah they won’t even discuss it, we’ll just get the same boilerplate response we got last time.