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[HamPster PamPster]

The kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/213177064/asylum-playing-cards

Consumers who financially backed a failed crowdfunding project are finally getting some backing of their own. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed the first consumer protection lawsuit in the nation involving crowdfunding.

The AGO lawsuit is against Edward J. Polchlepek III, otherwise known as Ed Nash, and his company, Altius Management, who ran the “Asylum Playing Cards” crowdfunding campaign in 2012 through a crowdfunding service called Kickstarter. Under Kickstarter’s terms of use, consumers who back a Kickstarter project make a financial pledge in exchange for an agreed upon product or “reward” that the project is legally required to deliver.

Project backers were promised the playing cards and other rewards with an estimated delivery date of December 2012. To date, the project has not been completed and none of the backers have received any of the promised items or any refunds. Additionally, the company has not communicated with its backers since July 2013.

http://atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?&id=32072#.U2QD_Ch7RKd

The project beat its original $15,000 goal to raise $25,146 by the time it ended in October 2012. The Attorney General's office alleges Polchlepek and Altius collected the money and neglected to deliver either the cards or the various backer rewards. Some of those backers live in the state of Washington, which allows the state's legal team to get involved.

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/2168...tarted_game_creator_who_failed_to_deliver.php

Sue me if old

 

[Yagharek]

Trolls and whatever it's called should be next.

 

[Leunam]

Why are there so many playing card kickstarters? I guess to me one deck of cards is as good as the next. :/

This could set a nice precedent for people who have gotten screwed before. Luckily I'm not part of that group.

 

[tokkun]

It's heartening to see the concept of consumer protection is actually alive somewhere, when so many people just say "Buyer Beware".

 

[Jado]

What was the reason for the cards not being made and delivered to backers? Straight up theft?

 

[Codeblue]

What was the reason for the cards not being made and delivered to backers? Straight up theft?

The Sun probably.

 

[sangreal]

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed the first consumer protection lawsuit in the nation involving crowdfunding.

Not true... there was another kickstarter lawsuit (ended up with the creator filing bankruptcy)

http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/22/w...arter-backer-decided-to-sue-why-he-was-right/

The Sun probably.

haha, I was wondering if that was this kickstarter, but alas it was a different card game

 

[Dawg]

The Sun probably.

 

[LiK]

wow, they didn't even fulfill backer rewards. scum.

 

[Aquamarine]

Good. Glad we're getting some good legal precedent to spook all those con artists into actually delivering.

 

[PixyJunket]

Cool. Hopefully similar action is taken against the thief scum who took 50k for Super Retro Squad and bought a house.

 

[anexanhume]

Anyone remember iControlPad? That one didn't get fulfilled either: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703567677/icontrolpad-2-the-open-source-controller/comments

 

[HamPster PamPster]

What was the reason for the cards not being made and delivered to backers? Straight up theft?

All the updates are for backers only (the last one was July 2013) but you can piece some stuff together from the backer comments. Sounds like the creator never paid the artist on the project either

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

Not true... there was another kickstarter lawsuit (ended up with the creator filing bankruptcy)

http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/22/w...arter-backer-decided-to-sue-why-he-was-right/

That was an individual backer suing the project creator, probably based on contract law. This is the Attorney General for the State of Washington suing a project creator under a consumer protection action. The State of Washington was not a party to any contract with the project creator, they're just trying to protect the rights of their citizens. So, yeah, it probably is the first consumer protection lawsuit filed by a state attorney general on a Kickstarter project.

 

[Guevara]

Once again the government's gotta clean up the private sector's mess.

 

[Acorn]

Good, governments around the world also need to look at regulating these sort of things and a myriad of other digital things. It's currently the wild west out there.

 

[Jado]

All the updates are for backers only (the last one was July 2013) but you can piece some stuff together from the backer comments. Sounds like the creator never paid the artist on the project either

Ah, thanks. Read the news piece and didn't see any clarification. Didn't think to check the KS comments section.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703567677/icontrolpad-2-the-open-source-controller/comments

This is pretty fucked up; they really mismanaged the hell out of this thing. I missed the Kickstarter, but spent some effort trying to get in touch with Product3 to put money down for a preorder. I knew it was definitely delayed, but last I checked they were still doing updates with prototypes, newly arrived parts and other improvements, so it seemed like it would be out any day now. Glad they never got back to me. They took so damn long that I kinda forgot and moved on to reliable, existing stuff (new Moga controllers).

 

[SteveWinwood]

Once again the government's gotta clean up the private sector's mess.

Bububububut free market!

 

[TangoAlphaLima]

Once again the government's gotta clean up the private sector's mess.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Kickstarter ended up on the hook. They're the ones providing the connection between project founders and backers, and they take a cut of the money funded. That they seem to absolve themselves of any need to vet these projects is absurd. It would be like Ebay not protecting a buyer if a seller sold them the wrong goods or never delivered.

 

[jcm]

I didn't realize Kickstarter had changed their terms to try to make reward delivery a legal requirement. That's not the way it was originally.