Nintendo will pay a $40 million fine for faulty Joy-Cons

A French regulatory authority accused Nintendo of Europe for deceptive business practices.

The Joy-Con stick drift saga never ends. France's equivalent of the Federal Trade Commission, Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes or DGCCRF for short, hit Nintendo of Europe with a 35 million euro fine, or more than $40 million. The French authority said the fine was for misleading consumers about the stick drift issues found in the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Cons.

Nintendo of Europe has agreed to pay the fine, but it's not the first time the company has faced legal troubles for its Joy-Cons. After its release in 2017, Switch owners found that after years of wear and tear, their thumbsticks would register movement without even touching the controller. The widespread issue led to class action lawsuits and investigations , but this latest fine focuses on Nintendo's handling of the situation. According to the DGCCRF, Nintendo only acknowledged the issue in 2020, instead of when it first learned of the stick drift problem, leading the DGCCRF to accuse Nintendo of committing deceptive business practices between 2018 and 2023.

Along with paying the fine, Nintendo has to bear a scarlet letter by putting a notice of deceptive business practices on the homepage of its French website. Nintendo has been doing free repairs for Joy-Cons for affected customers since 2019.