France Fines Nintendo $40 Million USD Over Drifting Switch Joy-Cons

Nintendo of Europe agreed to a €35 million settlement on March 12, 2024, following a French investigation into defective Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. France's Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) imposed the penalty, approximately $40 million USD, for deceptive commercial practices. Regulators found that Nintendo withheld information about the Joy-Con drift defect, which causes involuntary analog stick movements, from 2018 to 2023. This defect reportedly affected nearly half of the 155 million Nintendo Switch users globally. French authorities concluded that Nintendo's prolonged silence about the known hardware issue discouraged users from seeking free technical support, leading many to purchase replacement controllers instead of utilizing a repair program introduced in 2019. The investigation was initiated after a complaint from the consumer rights group UFC-Que Choisir in 2020, which accused Nintendo of planned obsolescence. As part of the settlement, Nintendo is required to publish a formal notice detailing the investigation's findings on its official regional website.