By Edith Hancock
Italy's competition regulator is investigating Microsoft's Activision Blizzard, saying the U.S. gaming publisher might be misleading consumers through its popular games "Diablo Immortal" and "Call of Duty Mobile".
The Italian Competition Authority, or AGCM, said Friday that Activision --acquired by Microsoft in 2023 for $75 billion--might have breached Italian consumer protection laws by using misleading and aggressive practices to nudge users to play more often, extend their gaming sessions and take up promoted offers. It said the games are described as free to play but still offer in-game purchases.
Neither Microsoft nor Activision Blizzard immediately responded to requests for comment.
The investigation will hone in on repeated prompts that urge users not to miss out on rewards or purchase time-limited offers, the watchdog said. "These practices, together with strategies that make it difficult for users to understand the real value of the virtual currency used in the game and the sale of in-game currency in bundles, may influence players as consumers - including minors," the AGCM said, adding that it can lead players to spend significant sums without being fully aware of the real costs.
The watchdog said parental controls for the games appear to default to a less restrictive version that enables minors to make in-game purchases. The AGCM said it would also look at how the games ask for consent for personal data processing and whether gamers get enough information about their contractual rights.
Microsoft faced a rocky regulatory process when it bought Activision as global merger watchdogs screened the deal for potential competition issues. The transaction was cleared by the European Commission--tasked with investigating multinational corporations' multi-billion euro transactions--after the companies offered to license Activision games to rival platforms for 10 years and let users stream Activision games through rival cloud steaming services.
It was also initially blocked by the U.K.'s competition regulator, but later cleared after the companies restructured it to include selling Activision's cloud streaming rights to France's Ubisoft.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications
This article was corrected at 8:29 a.m. ET because it misstated the deal value. Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at $75 billion, not $69.7 billion.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-16-26 0639ET
