Lawsuit accuses State of Survival makers of misleading pricing
Complaint claims developer misled users by advertising sales next to normal prices it never charged
A lawsuit filed against Funplus International and KingsGroup Holdings claims that the pair have been misleading consumers for years about sales in the mobile game State of Survival.
As reported by Top Class Actions, the complaint accuses the companies of advertising limited time sales next to supposedly normal prices, even though it never actually charged users the normal price. The suit was filed on September 2 in a California federal court.
The complaint alleges misleading practices which include users that they will receive a discounts of 99%. For example, players would pay $9.99 for a bundle the companies claimed was usually priced at $997.40.
Marketing also advertised warnings such as "only one remaining" to indicate scarcity and convey a sense of urgency to consumers. However the suit explained that there were no shortages in availability.
"These advertisements have run for years," the lawsuit explained.
"But at no point, let alone within three months of the advertised discounts, have these in-game items ever actually been offered at a non-discounted price–i.e. without their 'limited time discounts'."
Last month Funplus revealed that since State of Survival launched in 2019, it has been downloaded over 150 million times. It also announced that a PC version of the game is on the way.