Austria’s top court says FIFA Ultimate Team packs are not gambling under current law

Austria’s Supreme Court has ruled that loot boxes in FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode do not count as gambling, arguing that player skill still meaningfully affects outcomes even if pack contents are random. The decision comes out of Vienna and is final for this case.

As reported by GamesMarkt, the court said you cannot look at pack-opening in isolation. Instead, loot boxes and the game they’re attached to need to be considered together, and in FIFA Ultimate Team the player can “use their own skills to control the course of the game” enough to create a “rational expectation of winning.” At the same time, the judges left the door open for other loot box systems to be treated as gambling depending on how they work.

The case was brought against Electronic Arts and Sony by a group of players backed by Austrian litigation funder Padronus. The group said they spent a combined €20,000 on FIFA loot boxes.

Padronus managing director Richard Eibl criticized the ruling and said the organization has other similar cases against EA and Sony still waiting for Supreme Court decisions.

EA, meanwhile, welcomed the outcome in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, saying the ruling confirms EA Sports FC and Ultimate Team are not gambling and provides clarity for Austrian players.

This judgment could push Austrian lawmakers toward stricter rules if concerns about loot boxes continue, since gambling law did not provide consumer redress here. Gambling laws were written long before loot boxes existed, which can leave regulators and courts trying to fit modern monetization into older frameworks.