Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The .@Ziosk example - what if an NTN Buzztime Playmaker were the subject of EVERY lawsuit?

OK, I have not written in my Empoprise-NTN blog for over a year now. And the last time that I wrote, the topic was only tangential to NTN-Buzztime.

On April 11, 2014, I wrote a post that talked about the Ziosk tablets that Chili's is putting on every table. Yes, EVERY table. (Imagine a Playmaker on EVERY table.)

Well, just to show that there are always unintended consequences, and that there's every possibility for a lawsuit, the Ziosk tablets at Chili's have made Courthouse News Service.

Yup, Chili's has been sued because of them.

Chili's restaurants bilk customers by putting tablets loaded with games on dinner tables for kids, then charging parents for the games, a class action claims.

Brenda Quijada sued Brinker Restaurant Corp. and Ziosk in Superior Court on Friday, on behalf of parents and guardians who were charged for the games....

Quijada claims the companies trick people into thinking the games are free by failing to disclose that a 99-cent "entertainment fee" will be added to their bill if they use the tablet to play games.

Yes, the suit is over NINETY-NINE CENTS. I assume that the lawyer (Marcus Bradley with Marlin & Saltzman of Agoura Hills) is suing for more than ninety-nine cents in damages.

Now this doesn't really apply to NTN Buzztime Playmakers, since (a) the Buzztime games are always free, and (b) many establishments with Playmakers are bars and don't let children in anyway.

But it does raise a point - would some creative lawyer dream up a reason to sue over NTN Buzztime Playmakers? Do the Playmakers share personally identifiable information across international borders? ("While sitting in Vancouver, British Columbia, I discovered that OEMPEROR was eating lunch in a California bar!")