Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC; Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment, 71424-71425 [2014-28346]

Agencies

• FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 231 (Tuesday, December 2, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71424-71425]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-28346]



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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 122 3252]


Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC; Analysis of Proposed 
Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed Consent Agreement.

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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged 
violations of federal law prohibiting deceptive acts or practices. The 
attached Analysis of Proposed Consent Order to Aid Public Comment 
describes both the allegations in the draft complaint and the terms of 
the consent order--embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle 
these allegations.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before December 29, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sonyceaconsent online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Sony Computer 
Entertainment America LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 122 3252'' on 
your comment and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sonyceaconsent by following the 
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment 
on paper, write ``Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC--Consent 
Agreement; File No. 122 3252'' on your comment and on the envelope, and 
mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, 
Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 
(Annex D), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex 
D), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda Badger, Western Region-San 
Francisco, (415-848-5151), 901 Market Street, Suite 570, San Francisco, 
CA 94103.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34, 
notice is hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement 
containing consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with 
and accepted, subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been 
placed on the public record for a period of thirty (30) days. The 
following Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes the terms of the 
consent agreement, and the allegations in the complaint. An electronic 
copy of the full text of the consent agreement package can be obtained 
from the FTC Home Page (for November 25, 2014), on the World Wide Web, 
at https://www.ftc.gov/os/actions.shtm.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before December 29, 
2014. Write ``Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC--Consent 
Agreement; File No. 122 3252'' on your comment. Your comment--including 
your name and your state--will be placed on the public record of this 
proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public 
Commission Web site, at https://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a 
matter of discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home 
contact information from comments before placing them on the Commission 
Web site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number, 
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification 
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial 
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment does not include any 
sensitive health information, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which . . . is privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section 
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive 
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole 
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the 
public interest.
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    \1\ In particular, the written request for confidential 
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and 
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions 
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 
4.9(c), 16 CFR Sec.  4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/sonyceaconsent by following the instructions on the web-based form. 
If this Notice appears at https://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you also 
may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Sony Computer 
Entertainment America LLC--Consent Agreement; File No. 122 3252'' on 
your comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 
20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th 
Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20024. If 
possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by courier or 
overnight service.
    Visit the Commission Web site at https://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws 
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public 
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The 
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that 
it receives on or before December 29, 2014. You can find more 
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in 
the Commission's privacy policy, at https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

    The Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'') has 
accepted, subject to final approval, an agreement containing consent 
order from Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (``SCEA'' or 
``respondent''). The proposed consent order has been placed on the 
public record for thirty (30) days for receipt of comments by 
interested persons. Comments received during this period will become 
part of the public record. After thirty (30) days, the Commission will 
again review the agreement and the comments received, and will decide 
whether it should withdraw from the agreement and take

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appropriate action or make final the agreement's proposed order.
    This matter involves respondent's advertising of the PlayStation 
Vita (``PS Vita''), a gaming console. Respondent first offered the PS 
Vita for sale in the United States on February 22, 2012, for 
approximately $250. The PS Vita is part of respondent's line of game 
consoles, including the PlayStation 3 video game console (``PS3''), 
which allows consumers to play video games on their television sets. 
Unlike the PS3, the PS Vita is a handheld, portable game console that 
allows consumers to play games away from their television sets. In 
addition to selling game consoles, respondent is one of the many game 
developers writing game titles for use on its PS3 and PS Vita game 
consoles. At the time the PS Vita was launched, ``MLB 12: The Show,'' 
and ``Killzone 3,'' were popular SCEA game titles for the PS3.
    According to the complaint, respondent advertised several notable 
features of the PS Vita. First, respondent promoted the ``remote play'' 
feature of the PS Vita as a way that consumers could access games 
already residing on their PS3 consoles and play them remotely on the PS 
Vita anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. Second, advertisements 
represented that, with the ``cross platform gaming'' or ``cross save'' 
feature, consumers could begin playing a game on a PS3 console, save 
their progress at any point in the game, and then continue that game 
where they left off on the PS Vita. Third, with the ``3G version'' the 
PS Vita, available for an extra $50 and monthly fees, advertisements 
represented that consumers could access a 3G network to play games live 
with others (``multiplayer gaming''). The complaint alleges that 
respondent's advertising of these features was false or misleading and 
thus violates the FTC Act.
    With respect to the remote play feature, the FTC's complaint 
alleges that respondent misrepresented that, with this feature, PS Vita 
users can easily access their PS3 games on the PS Vita. According to 
the complaint, PS Vita users could not easily access their PS3 games on 
the PS Vita. Indeed, most PS3 games are not remote playable on the PS 
Vita, and respondent did not specifically design the PS3 system to 
support remote play functionality. In addition, the complaint alleges 
as false or misleading respondent's claim that PS Vita users can, with 
remote play, easily access Killzone 3 and other similar, data-rich PS3 
games. Respondent never enabled remote play on its Killzone 3 title, 
and very few, if any, data-rich PS3 games of similar size and 
complexity to Killzone 3 were remote play compatible on the PS Vita.
    The complaint also alleges that the respondent made false or 
misleading claims about the cross save feature of the PS Vita. Contrary 
to respondent's advertisements, PS Vita users are not able to pause any 
PS3 game they are playing on their PS3 consoles at any point in the 
game, and continue to play that game where they left off on the PS 
Vita. The complaint states that this feature is available only for a 
limited number of PS3 game titles, and that the pause and save feature 
varies significantly by game. For example, with respect to ``MLB 12: 
The Show,'' consumers are able to pause and save the game to the PS 
Vita only after they have finished the entire baseball game (all nine 
innings) on the PS3. The complaint also alleges that with respect to 
this feature, respondent failed to disclose that, with games such as 
MLB 12: The Show, consumers would have to own two versions of the same 
game, one for the PS3 and one for the PS Vita, to use this feature.
    Finally, the complaint addresses advertising claims made for 
features relating to the 3G version of the PS Vita. Specifically, the 
complaint alleges as false or misleading the representation that PS 
Vita users who own the 3G version are able to engage in live, 
multiplayer gaming through a 3G network. According to the complaint, PS 
Vita users are restricted to asynchronous or ``turn-based'' multiplayer 
gaming with the 3G version of the PS Vita.
    The proposed consent order contains provisions designed to prevent 
respondent from engaging in similar acts or practices in the future, as 
well as a provision to redress certain consumers. Part I of the order 
prohibits respondent from misrepresenting any material gaming feature 
or capability of any Handheld Game Console Product, when used as a 
standalone device to play video games.
    Part II of the proposed order prohibits respondent from making any 
representation about the material capability of any Handheld or Home 
Game Console Product to interact with, or connect to, any other 
Handheld Game Console Product during gaming, unless at the time it is 
made, respondent possesses and relies upon competent and reliable 
evidence that substantiates the representation.
    Part III of the proposed order prohibits respondent from making any 
representation about the material capability of any Handheld or Home 
Game Console Product to interact with, or connect to, any other 
Handheld or Home Game Console Product during gaming, unless it 
discloses, clearly and prominently, and in close proximity to the 
representation, that consumers must purchase two versions of the same 
video game, one for each console, if such is the case.
    Part IV of the proposed order provides for consumer redress to 
``eligible purchasers'' of the PS Vita. The proposed order defines 
``eligible purchasers'' as consumers who purchased the PS Vita before 
June 1, 2012, and did not return it for a full refund. SCEA will offer 
these consumers $25 dollars in cash or credit or the alternative of a 
voucher (or other entitlement) for merchandise, video games, and/or 
services with a retail value of $50 or more.
    Part V of the proposed order contains recordkeeping requirements 
for advertisements and substantiation relevant to representations 
covered by Parts I through III of the order.
    Parts VI through VIII of the proposed order require the company to: 
Deliver a copy of the order to certain personnel having managerial 
responsibilities with respect to the subject matter of the order; 
notify the Commission of changes in corporate structure that might 
affect compliance obligations under the order; and file compliance 
reports with the Commission.
    Part IX of the proposed order provides that the order will 
terminate after twenty (20) years, with certain exceptions.
    The purpose of this analysis is to facilitate public comment on the 
proposed order, and it is not intended to constitute an official 
interpretation of the complaint or proposed order, or to modify the 
proposed order's terms in any way.

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2014-28346 Filed 12-1-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P