- Parents are arguing that their children experienced symptoms of addiction to Fortnite.
- Canada Supreme Court authorized the class-action lawsuit on Wednesday.
- "We plan to fight this in court. We believe the evidence will show that this case is meritless," Epic Games said in a statement.
A Canadian Supreme Court judge authorized a lawsuit against Fortnite's manufacturer filed by Quebec parents who say their children became addicted to the video game.
In July, three parents told Justice Sylvain Lussier that their children appeared to be severely dependent on Fortnite, and stopped eating, sleeping, and showering as a result,
BBC News reports.
Lussier's Wednesday ruling determined the class-action suit wasn't "frivolous or manifestly ill-founded,"
according to Global News.
"The court concludes that there is a serious issue to be argued, supported by sufficient and specific allegations as to the existence of risks or even dangers arising from the use of Fortnite," Lussier ruled.
An attorney from the firm that brought the suit equated the game's maker, Epic Games, to a tobacco manufacturer in an interview, and said the legal responsibility was "basically the same."
"Our motion was heavily inspired by the tobacco motion just in terms of what we were alleging," lawyer Alessandra Esposito Chartrand said, according to the Global News report.
Lussier echoed the comparison of video game and tobacco addictions. "The harmful effect of tobacco was not recognised or admitted overnight," he ruled.
However, the court didn't agree with the parents' claim that Epic Games deliberately made Fortnite addictive.
"The court finds that there is no evidence for these allegations of the deliberate creation of an addictive game," the judge wrote. "This does not exclude the possibility that the game is in fact addictive and that its designer and distributor are presumed to know it."
Epic Games denied the validity of the suit in a statement obtained by BBC.
"Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week, and require parental permission before purchases are made," the company said.
"We plan to fight this in court. We believe the evidence will show that this case is meritless."
On average, Fortnite attracts over 80 million active players monthly,
according to techacake.com. As part of the class-action, other Fortnite players in Quebec who believe they've experienced symptoms of addiction to the game.
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