Candy Crush Illegally Deletes Players' Lives, Lawsuit Says

King.com, the maker of the phenomenally successful Candy Crush game, was hit with a lawsuit earlier this month accusing the company of deleting players’ virtual lives – even when those lives have a cash value. The suit was filed by Alina Renert, a Candy Crush user who alleges that from 2013 onward, King.com began unilaterally removing some players’ lives from their accounts, including extra lives earned by inviting Facebook friends to play. This is apparently despite the fact Candy Crush made a reported $1.9 billion in 2013, with more than one billion games played per day. For those paying attention, that’s more than $859,000 in revenue per day.

There’s no doubting that Candy Crush has changed the way mobile gaming works.

Part of the company’s success is that, once players are hooked, additional lives can be bought through in-app purchases for $0.99 – or, as is perhaps more common, by connecting Candy Crush to a user’s Facebook account and inviting friends to play the game. Friends can then give “donated lives” to a player even once their initial lives have run out. It’s a clever marketing tactic and it’s worked well so far – but has King.com been deleting donated lives, prompting users to pay for something they thought they already had? According to the new lawsuit:

“In or around early 2014, Plaintiff connected Candy Crush to her Facebook account. When Plaintiff ran out of lives, she utilized the Facebook Option by periodically asking her Facebook friends for Donated Lives. On information and belief, some of Plaintiff’s Facebook friends downloaded and installed Candy Crush as a result of Plaintiff’s request. Plaintiff received her Donated Lives and exited Candy Crush. However, upon returning to the Game, Plaintiff found that the Donated Lives were gone.”

Renert then purchased additional lives in order to carry on playing.

Other users have clearly had the same problem. Complaints posted on King Forum online message boards include [sic throughout]:

“Had 3 lives on my phone a couple hours ago sent from friends but now they are gone. Why does this keep happening? I want my lives back!!!!”

“Keep loosing lives. Just lost 50. A few days ago, lost 22. Several times lost 5 to 10. Feel cheated. Please fix this.”

At the heart of the lawsuit is a simple accusation: by deleting donated lives and requiring players to purchase new lives using their own money, King.com made millions of dollars. $0.99 might seem a small amount, but with such a large number of players, it adds up quickly. Renert is hoping to certify a national class of all Candy Crush players whose donated lives were removed from their accounts, who then purchased replacement lives. The lawsuit also identifies a subclass of Illinois players.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. You can read the class action complaint by clicking here. This case is Renert v. King.com, Inc.