Riot Games ordered to pay $3M for loot box damages in Brazil

A Brazilian federal court just handed Riot Games a R$15 million bill, roughly $3 million, for collective moral damages tied to loot boxes in League of Legends. The ruling is part of a much larger crackdown that should make every gaming company executive reach for their compliance budget.

The 1st Court for Children and Youth of Brazil’s Federal District didn’t stop at Riot. The broader ruling totals R$298 million in penalties spread across a roster of tech and gaming heavyweights, including Apple, Microsoft, Tencent, Google, Sony, and Valve.

The full picture of Brazil’s loot box crackdown

Riot’s R$15 million portion is actually on the lighter end. Apple, Microsoft, and Tencent were each hit with R$50 million in damages. The court’s logic is straightforward: companies that profit from gambling-like mechanics marketed to children should pay for the harm those mechanics cause.

The legal foundation for this ruling is Brazil’s ECA Digital law, which came into effect in March 2026. The legislation specifically prohibits loot boxes for minors, treating randomized paid reward systems in games as a consumer protection issue rather than a simple entertainment feature.

Beyond the financial penalties, the court ordered defendants to implement concrete changes. These include age verification systems and mandatory disclosure of loot box probabilities.

Riot Games had already started rolling out age restrictions and verification processes for League of Legends in Brazil back in March 2026, coinciding with the law’s effective date. Players under 18 now face access restrictions designed to keep them away from the game’s monetization features.

Brazil’s long road to regulating loot boxes

Brazil has been scrutinizing loot boxes since at least 2021, when formal inquiries into the practice began gaining traction among legislators and consumer protection advocates.

League of Legends uses a loot box system called Hextech Crafting, where players can purchase or earn chests containing randomized cosmetic items. While the items are cosmetic rather than gameplay-affecting, the purchasing mechanism itself, pay money for an unknown reward, is what regulators target.

Belgium banned loot boxes entirely back in 2018. The Netherlands tried the same approach before courts reversed the decision. Brazil’s approach is notable because it doesn’t ban loot boxes outright for adults. It specifically focuses on protecting minors, which makes the legislation harder to argue against from a free-market perspective.

Brazil is the largest gaming market in Latin America.

What this means for gaming investors and the broader industry

The R$298 million total penalty across all defendants isn’t going to bankrupt anyone on the list. But the financial hit isn’t really the point. Brazil has now established a functioning legal framework that treats loot boxes as a regulated activity when minors are involved, and courts are willing to assign real monetary damages for violations.

Valve, Sony, and Google, all named in the same ruling, now face the same compliance mandates around age verification and probability disclosure in Brazil.

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