Nintendo of Europe has agreed to pay a €35 million fine after a French regulator found the company misled customers about Joy-Con drift defects on original Switch controllers.
As reported by La Monde, an investigation by France’s General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) found that Nintendo was aware of technical defects, such as responsiveness issues and drift as early as 2018, but did not inform consumers until 2020.
The DGCCRF said this caused consumers to buy unnecessary replacement controllers. The National Investigation Service (SNE) of the DGCCRF determined that Nintendo of Europe misled consumers by failing to disclose Joy-Con controller defects transparently.
The investigation began after a 2020 complaint from the French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir.
The organisation had warned in 2019 of possible “planned obsolescence,” noting that Nintendo’s manufacturing updates did not fix the Joy-Con defect, even though the company knew about the issue.
Planned obsolescence is when a manufacturer intentionally designs products with a limited lifespan.
Nintendo of Europe said in a statement that it did not “intentionally mislead consumers” and that agreeing to the settlement “does not constitute an admission of guilt and reflects only the amicable resolution of legal proceedings.”
The Joy-Con problem is part of a larger, ongoing issue for Nintendo. In 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed in the US regarding the issue. This was dismissed in 2024.
UK watchdog Which claimed that over 40% of original Switch Joy-Con controllers were affected by drift issues.
