A Brazilian court has ordered Riot Games to pay R$15 million BRL ($2.8 million USD) in collective moral damages over loot box mechanics in League of Legends, according to an underlying court judgment reviewed by The Esports Advocate and a public notice from the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories.
The decision was issued June 9 by Judge Rejane Zenir Jungbluth Teixeira Suxberger of the 1st Court for Children and Youth of Brazil’s Federal District. It stems from a civil public action brought by ANCED, the National Association of Centers for the Defense of Children and Adolescents, which has challenged loot box mechanics in games accessible to children and teenagers.
The ruling is not final. The court judgment reviewed by TEA states that the appeal period has been reopened and that Riot, ANCED, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office should be notified of the decision.
The award is far below what ANCED initially sought. According to the judgment, the child-protection group had requested R$1.5 billion ($280 million) in collective moral damages from Riot. The court rejected that figure as disproportionate and set the award at R$15 million ($2.8 million) while also denying a broader request for individual damages for affected users. The June 9 decision followed an earlier stage in which parts of ANCED’s claim had been rejected, before the judge revisited the matter after an appeal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The Riot case is part of a broader Brazilian legal campaign over loot boxes. UOL reported that other companies, including Valve, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony, Tencent, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Konami, Nintendo, and Garena, were also ordered to pay damages in related cases, bringing the combined total to R$298 million ($56 million). According to UOL, Valve was ordered to pay R$10 million ($1.9 million) in a case tied to Counter-Strike. TEA could confirm the existence of a related ANCED case against Trueline Valve Corporation in Brazilian legal records, but could not independently review the underlying Valve judgment at publication time.
In the Riot judgment, the court found that the company’s randomized reward mechanics violated Brazilian child-protection and consumer-protection rules. According to the TJDFT public notice, the court ordered Riot to implement a series of safeguards after the decision becomes final, including clear warnings, disclosure of item probabilities, age-verification systems, and a refund mechanism for minors or their guardians. The notice also states that noncompliance could result in a daily fine of R$100,000 ($19,450).
The decision comes as Brazil has moved to tighten regulation of digital services used by minors. Brazil’s Law No. 15,211/2025, commonly referred to as ECA Digital, introduced new child-protection obligations for digital products and prohibits loot boxes in games directed at children and adolescents or likely to be accessed by them. The Riot judgment, however, did not rely only on the new law. The court’s reasoning also drew on existing consumer and child-protection principles, according to the decision reviewed by TEA.
For the esports industry, the case is notable because it reaches into monetization systems that sit close to several competitive gaming ecosystems. Riot’s League of Legends and Valve’s Counter-Strike are not merely consumer games; they are among the most important titles in the global esports economy, supporting professional leagues, sponsorships, creator ecosystems, in-game cosmetics markets and tournament-related fan engagement.
The financial penalty against Riot is modest relative to the scale of its parent company, Tencent, and the global revenue base of League of Legends. The larger issue is operational and regulatory. If more courts or regulators treat randomized cosmetic rewards as gambling-like or harmful to minors, publishers may face a fragmented compliance environment in which loot box disclosures, age gates, refund rules, and monetization features vary by jurisdiction.
Riot had already made Brazil-specific access changes earlier this year. Esports Radar reported in March that Riot introduced age-verification requirements in Brazil and temporarily changed the age rating for several games, including League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, 2XKO, and Legends of Runeterra, to 18+. According to that report, minors were blocked from accessing those titles while Riot worked to align the games with their original ratings. VALORANT was handled differently, with players aged 12 to 17 allowed to continue playing with parental consent.
Loot boxes have faced growing regulatory scrutiny globally, though outcomes have varied by jurisdiction. Belgium’s Gaming Commission concluded in 2018 that paid loot boxes in games, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and FIFA 18, met the country’s definition of games of chance, prompting major publishers to disable or change paid loot box mechanics in the market. In the Netherlands, the country’s highest administrative court later overturned a €10 million EUR ($11.5 million) penalty against Electronic Arts, ruling in 2022 that FIFA Ultimate Team packs were not a standalone game of chance under Dutch gambling law. Austria has produced litigation over FIFA packs, including lower-court rulings requiring refunds, while Valve has continued to face scrutiny over Counter-Strike containers; in 2026, Valve introduced an “X-Ray Scanner” system for German players that requires users to reveal container contents before opening them. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission reached a $20 million settlement in 2025 with the maker of Genshin Impact over allegations involving loot boxes, children’s privacy, and misleading disclosures, while Valve is facing U.S. litigation over loot box mechanics in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2.