Candy Crush Player's Fraud Claims Are Barred; Should Go to Arbitration, Says King

Plaintiff Sorina Montoya, who sued Activision Blizzard and King in a May fraud complaint involving a video game tournament, fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, said King defendants' Monday response (docket 3:23-cv-00314) to Montoya's complaint in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Richmond. Montoya engages in impermissible group pleading, doesn’t plead a plausible claim for relief and fails to state facts with sufficient particularity to meet the pleading standard for fraud under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), the defendants said. Montoya sued the companies in May alleging game developer King and Activision misled contestants about their odds of winning a March-April mobile game tournament to get them to bump up their in-app purchases. Montoya asserts defendants mislead contestants into thinking that they were doing well vis-a-vis their competitors, that few other players were competing against them, and that they had a good chance of making the Finals in London. That kept players spending money on in-app purchases; Montoya spent over $3,000 on the Candy Crush tournament. In their response, King defendants said Montoya’s demand for a jury trial should be denied due to her obligation to resolve claims through alternative dispute resolution, and her claims must be referred to arbitration. The Virginia venue is improper because a substantial part of the events involving claims against the King defendants didn’t occur in Virginia, said the response, saying non-arbitrable claims should be transferred to U.S. District Court for Central California. Some of Montoya’s claims are barred by the statute of limitations or doctrines of laches or waiver, or putative class members’ failure to bring claims within a reasonable time after discovery, they said. Plaintiff lacks standing to seek injunctive relief because the tournament concluded, they said. Montoya's claims are barred by the doctrines of voluntary payment, accord and satisfaction, and ratification, the response said, and class members have not sustained injury, economic harm or damage as a result of alleged actions of King. Montoya’s and class members’ in-game purchases were made pursuant to a contract and so are barred for equitable relief, they said. Her request for injunctive relief should be denied, and King defendants should be awarded legal costs incurred, they said.