No as the contract itself hasn’t changed, and they state that in the message, it’s only the holing entity that is changing, and they have to inform you of that fact. Essentially if you don’t want to take the change, then you can cancel the contract, but alas no refund.
Edit…It’s Trading standards that are forcing them to inform you of the change.
Edit 2…The contract isn’t ending, namely the changing of the holding entity.
OK, many thanks, I will look into it further.
Edit, from the notice
As part of the change in our distribution, the Blizzard games you play and services you use, including Battle.net, (“Platform”) will be provided by Activision Blizzard UK Limited after 31 December 2021. Therefore, the End User Licence Agreement (EULA) and the Terms of Sale with Blizzard Entertainment SAS will terminate.
The contract is staying the same, all terms etc are not changing, it is just the company name that is changing, not tge actual company.
They aren’t, they are asking NA players. See OP’s link. Has anyone seem an EU one?
What has Trading Standards got to do with it.
It does if you don’t agree. Blizzard aren’t asking for fun, they have to do so I’d argue the contract is invalid as they stated it themselves.
sounded like you said maintenance mode to me
Blizzard has been a wholly own subsidiary of Activison-Blizzard for a long time.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01709830/persons-with-significant-control
The UK subsidiary is wholly owed by Activison-Blizzard.
The interesting thing is Blizzard-Activison is incorporated in Delaware, it’s the USA’s inland tax haven state.
They bought Abbey National and changed it’s name. It was rather stupid really because no one in the UK cared about Santander brand at the time.
That’s just people being idiots.
True that, I know this bitterly to my cost. I worked for ‘cahoot’ which was Abbey National’s Internet bank subsidiary based in Coventry at the time the deal had went through. Just spent years getting promoted to being a Manager there, when the buyout happened. They said our jobs were safe, were they hell as like…Still bitter, I loved that job, genuinely fun.
Yes, yes it is…
It’s legal garbage. Basically, Blizzard’s games will now be published by Activision Blizzard UK, not by Blizzard Entertainment SAS. This is probably due to potential tax changes coming in the US, billionaire tax might happen, and companies are doing cheap tricks to get out of paying those. They probably won’t work. Biden is talking about raising corporate tax after Trump lowered it, but Biden won’t raise it to the levels it was during Obama’s presidency. ActiBlizz might be looking to get their main “revenue earner” company out of the US to pay less in general.
Facebook did something similar - not many people know this, but the Facebook IP is owned by an Irish company. Facebook established a subsidiary in Ireland and sold it the Facebook IP. It was done with the intention of evading taxes. The flipside is that now Facebook, as a primarily European entity, can be bullied harder to comply with European digital security laws, the big one being banning all Facebook entities (insta, whatsapp, messenger, etc) from sending European user data to American servers because (unlike China) we know for a fact America will always spy on data, regardless of corporate compliance and will repeatedly break no-spying agreements. China obviously spies… but they’ve never been really caught. We just know they are doing it. America’s been caught breaking 3 anti-spying agreements with Europe.
PS: Speaking of billionaire tax and ActiBlizz - keep in mind the only time the rich pay taxes is when they buy stuff and need to pay VATs. So when Bobby buys his next yacht, he pays some of his wealth in taxes. Otherwise, the rich keep their wealth in assets, not in money, pay next to no taxes, because assets aren’t taxed, unlike property, which is… because the law is weird like that. Then they can leverage their assets to get loans, which they also turn into assets, so they pay no taxes on that as well… and that way they can generate infinite money. It’s called the infinite money glitch. :3
I was thinking it has to do with the UK no longer being a part of the EU and it’s more beneficial for their European division to be outside of EU control. Might just be for tax purposes or maybe they can get away with more of their shenanigans… 
Its more than likely for tax purposes. Many US companies had their EU entities in Ireland, which is an EU country. There are tax changes on the horizon that are not favorable for these companies, as well as additional privacy laws. It makes sense from a business perspective to just cease these EU subsidaries and move everything to US law. Facebook did something similar about 2 years ago.
just read it .if you are just that much concerned about it
After further investigation, I am entirely convinced Activision Blizzard made this move in order to evade the upcoming changes to corporate taxation. While corporate tax won’t go up by that much, how it is calculated will change. It will no longer be based on what companies report to the government. Instead, it will be based on the profits companies tell their investors. Due to how most rich people’s wealth is tied to assets rather than money, companies will still be incentivized to tell the truth to their investors. If Activision’s stock goes down due to bad profits, Bobby Kotick loses a massive chunk of his wealth immediately.
So… in order for the taxation trick to happen, the profits Blizzard discloses need to be generated by a non-American company. This is my firm belief.
PS: as far as taxes are concerned, the reason they need to exist is to ensure wealth redistribution and prevent a monopoly on money, which without taxation is inevitable. Hell, we’re seeing things go in that direction even with a taxation system.
It’s Activision’s Europe, asia subsiduary nothing spectacular.
As I’ve said before Ireland is a tax haven. They have a ridiculously low tax rate and some companies never paid that… Google apple Ireland.
A have a question about that, just saw the email because it was labelled as an offer and I hadnt seen it and I pressed the link. Now this leads to the support page so it doesnt automatically do something does it? And if it does, is it revertable?
You’ve sold the soul of your first born to Bobby Kotick.
Nah, it’s an opt out thing.
The soul thing wasn’t a joke.
Yeah but did I opt out automatically?
no, you’re safe. The only way you can opt out is cancel your account.
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