Pokémon Go class action lawsuit leads Niantic to pay $1.5 million

Last year, developer Niantic celebrated its one-year anniversary of the hugely successful Pokémon Go by introducing a large scale festival dubbed Pokémon Go Fest. Unfortunately, the event was a complete disaster that ended up seeing a class action lawsuit to claim damages for attendees that had paid to partake. Now, the lawsuit has come to an end, resulting in Niantic paying out a hefty $1,575,000 settlement.

Pokémon Go Fest was plagued with technical difficulties from the beginning, with Niantic’s servers giving many players connection issues that rendered the game unplayable. As a result of this, Niantic refunded ticket costs and compensated players with $100 of in-game currency and a legendary Pokémon.

Jonathan Norton was unhappy with the outcome, particularly with no planned reparations for his travel and accommodation expenses, having come all the way from California. Suspecting that he wasn’t the worst victim of the botched event, Norton opened up a class action lawsuit that demanded Niantic take responsibility.

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According to TechCrunch, this lawsuit has come to an end, with Niantic paying $1,575,000 in damages across the estimated 20,000 attendees, covering anything from “airfare, hotel costs, up to two days of parking fees, car rental, mileage and tolls.”

Those affected will be able to claim their portion of the $1.5 million through a website that is set to go live by May 25th, 2018 and will be notified via email. There are a few requirements that need to be met before claiming however:

Only attendees that checked into Go Fest via the application itself will be considered eligible, preventing ticket scalpers from claiming on something they didn’t attend. Those that did will be entitled to $107 returned to them in damages, but any requiring more than this will have to provide receipts to prove the expenses.

Lastly, the report states that any money left over after all claims have been completed including that of lawyer fees, will result in a donation evenly split between the Illinois Bar foundation and the non-profit organization Chicago Run.

KitGuru Says: While it’s not unheard of for other events to cancel and not compensate for travel, this is usually done through natural circumstances out of an event holders control. Unfortunately, the technical difficulties were the responsibility of Niantic and therefore requires some form of compensation for the trust invested by its attendees. Do you agree with the outcome of the lawsuit?

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