Man sues NetEase after his friend sells a US$1.4 million game character for US$500

The court intervened and NetEase revocated the transaction while the buyer got nearly US$13,000 in damages

NetEase

Josh Ye

Published: 6:40pm, 21 Nov, 2019

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This article originally appeared on ABACUS

A man in China took his friend to court for selling a game character he spent US$1.4 million on for just US$552.

The man filed a proceeding against his friend and NetEase after the friend mistakenly sold off the character from the MMORPG Justice Online for just 3,888 yuan (US$552). The defendant said he was trying to sell the character back to his friend for 388,000 yuan (US$55,138), as he had been given the character to play. He attributed the typo to being dizzy from excessive gaming at the time.

But the moment the character was seen on NetEase’s in-game marketplace, it was snatched up by another buyer.

The case was ultimately settled with the mediation of a judge online. NetEase revoked the transaction, and the plaintiff paid the buyer 90,000 yuan (US$12,789) in damages. After the settlement, the local court in Sichuan posted on social media that the case was a great example of the protection of digital assets, and it warned gamers not to spend too much in video games.

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