Technology

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1130290/roblox-must-face-iowa-consumer-fraud-claims

Full Ruling.

On May 13, 2026, the Iowa District Court for Polk County issued a ruling allowing Iowa's consumer fraud lawsuit against Roblox Corporation to move forward.

The Court denied Roblox’s attempt to dismiss the core of Iowa's lawsuit and determined that the suit may move forward with its deception claims and certain unfair practice claims. The claims maintain that Roblox purposefully misled parents by misrepresenting both the quantity and the quality of its safety tools.

The Court's decision allows the following arguments made by the Attorney General’s Office to continue:

• Roblox falsely promised a "safety review of every uploaded image, audio, and video file" to create a false sense of security;
• Roblox intentionally misrepresented the amount of violent and sexual content on its platform to secure lower age ratings on various app stores;
• Roblox uses unfair practices, including the default allowance of adult-child communications and the misleading implementation of in-game currency;
• Roblox lacks sufficient parental controls and fails to warn users about potential harm.

Importantly, the Court rejected Roblox's attempt to evade the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act by arguing its platform is not "merchandise" simply because it is free to play. Noting that Roblox profits by selling user data and in-game currency, the Court ruled that exempting companies like Roblox under their “free” argument would “create a large loophole.”