That's pretty cool to see, some actual action get them going on the back foot now.

Facebook does what they let it do. It's pretty easy to block acess to Facebook in the EU if they want to. It's already done in some countries with for example Pirate Bay.

It's equally easy to access any game/site that is blocked in your country with VPN. Lineage 2 Classic Europe for example is blocked for any country that is not in Europe, and yet I play it everyday through VPN.

For pirate bay, you don't even need to pay for a VPN. The only thing you need is download the Tor Browser and you will rape through any blocked site.

Good news to me, hope this leads to the eventual death of lootboxes.

I don't see how that helps them. The GDPR laws explicitly are about the data and whether you are personally a citizen or resident of the EU, it doesn't matter where the data is housed (in or out of the EU) Facebook would still be liable for any breaches under GDPR and still need to report on it and the 4% revenue fine would still apply should they fail to meet those requirements.

Edit: I understand now, basically cuCabeludo made some "creative" edits which is why it made no sense. They are NOT moving EU users data, they are moving NON EU users data. moving EU users data would have had zero effect as EU data isn't governed by borders, other countries data is though.o

I have good hopes that loot boxes will die before the next-gen consoles arrive and that publishers will move to a model where you can just directly buy the skins you want like Overwatch. Although some games like FIFA Ultimate Team are just build around it too heavily to get rid off them.

It still blocks the majority of the traffic. Not everyone cares enough to go find an illegal workaround.

Actually Facebook already made a lot of changes for european laws for the whole world, so even for users falling under different jurisdictions. And whatever they do, the laws apply to all user-profiles from european users, so they can fuck with american user data, but not with the data of european users. They could though give up on the european market and delete all profiles of european users and disallow european users to register - but that will not happen, as this is big profit for Facebook. So yeah, they moved some data of users not from the european union away from european servers. They still have to follow law for all european users.

I agree. It is a minority that looks for VPN/Proxies/Tor or other stuff to circumvent blocks. So blocks are basically effective for the majority of the populace.

Belgian Gaming Commission recommends criminal prosecution over illegal loot boxes

The Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) has suggested that criminal prosecution should be undertaken against Electronic Arts, Valve, and Activision Blizzard over loot boxes in their respective games.

With the release of its research report on loot boxes, the BGC has clearly defined the parameters of what does and does not constitute gambling, and the ways in which FIFA 18, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch each contravene the legislation.

The report lays out recommendations of what steps should be taken next to handle the issue.

Although the BGC has suggested criminal prosecution first and foremost, it will not proceed until Belgian minister of justice Koen Geens has met with industry stakeholders to begin a dialogue on the issue.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, BGC director Peter Naessens said: "We are going to take all preparatory measures for the drafting of police reports, but it's not going to be tomorrow. There is a certain amount of time for the minister of justice, but it's not unlimited."

Full article: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-05-10-belgian-gambling-commission-lays-out-recommendations-over-illegal-loot-boxes