Four PlayStation Store customers have sued Sony in federal court, arguing that the “Buy Now” and “Confirm Purchase” buttons on its digital storefront make players think they own the games they pay for — when what they actually get is a license that can be revoked. The case, filed June 18, 2026, is testing a California law written specifically for this kind of purchase.
Key facts
- Case: Heycock v. Sony Corporation of America, Case No. 3:26-cv-06016, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Filed: June 18, 2026
- Plaintiffs: four PlayStation Store customers, including Andrew Garcia, Edward Heycock, and Jason Mendoza
- Claims: violations of California’s AB 2426 digital-purchase disclosure law, its False Advertising Law, and its Consumer Legal Remedies Act
- Sony’s response: filed August 21, 2026, seeking to compel individual arbitration or, failing that, dismissal
- Next date: hearing set for October 1, 2026, before Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco
Two buyers, one game
One detail from the case shows just how far apart “owning” and “licensing” a digital game can be in practice: two of the plaintiffs bought the exact same digital game within days of each other. Jason Mendoza bought a digital copy of Resident Evil Requiem, and fellow plaintiff Edward Heycock bought the same title about eleven days later. That overlap becomes central to how Sony later defends itself in court, as explained below.
The law behind the case
That law, AB 2426, took effect January 1, 2025. It requires any company selling digital goods — games, downloadable content, e-books, and similar products — to do one of two things before checkout: either clearly and separately disclose that a “buy” or “purchase” is really a limited, revocable license, or get the buyer to affirmatively acknowledge that what they are getting is a license, not ownership. Companies can’t just bury the disclosure inside other terms and conditions. According to the complaint, the PlayStation Store checkout relies only on the first path — a disclosure line — and the complaint does not describe any separate step where a buyer has to actively acknowledge the license, the law’s other allowed option.
Who is suing
Andrew Garcia, Edward Heycock, Jason Mendoza, and a fourth plaintiff surnamed Salinas — whose first name is reported inconsistently across outlets — are the four PlayStation owners behind the suit, Heycock v. Sony Corporation of America (Case No. 3:26-cv-06016), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It alleges that the PlayStation Store’s disclosure — a line stating that “your purchase of this digital product amounts to a license subject to the Software Product License Agreement” — appears in small, unhighlighted text above the confirm button, while the software’s own license terms elsewhere state plainly that it “is licensed to you, not sold” and that the buyer does “not own the product.” The suit adds claims under California’s False Advertising Law and its Consumer Legal Remedies Act.
Sony’s response
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC filed the response on August 21, 2026, and it takes two separate tracks. First, it wants the dispute out of court entirely: the motion asks a judge to compel the four plaintiffs into individual arbitration and stay the case, citing an arbitration clause and class-action waiver in the PlayStation Network’s Terms of Service. Failing that, Sony wants the whole complaint dismissed. Some court-tracking sites report that Sony Corporation of America — the company named in the case’s own caption — was voluntarily dropped as a defendant a day earlier, on August 20, 2026, leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment as the sole defendant; that could not be confirmed against a primary court record, and the case caption itself still reads “Heycock v. Sony Corporation of America.”
On the substance, Sony’s filing argues that “reasonable consumers would not be misled” into thinking they own their digital games outright. It points to language already in its own Terms of Service and license agreement stating the transaction is a “personal license,” and argues that ownership isn’t a plausible reading of the purchase in the first place — citing the Mendoza-Heycock purchases described above as one example. Sony’s point: if Mendoza’s purchase had given him sole ownership of that digital copy, Heycock should not also have been able to buy it. The fact that he could, Sony argues, shows a digital “purchase” grants a license that more than one buyer can hold to the same title at once — unlike a single physical disc, which only one person can own.
What happens next
Nothing has been decided yet. Briefing on Sony’s motion was due to close by September 11, 2026, and a hearing is scheduled for October 1, 2026, before Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco. No ruling has been issued, and it isn’t yet known whether the case will proceed as a class action, get sent to arbitration, or be dismissed.
Other digital storefronts
Sony isn’t the only storefront dealing with this law. Valve’s Steam was the first major platform to react, adding a banner to its shopping cart in October 2024 — ahead of AB 2426 taking effect — telling buyers a purchase “grants a license for the product on Steam.” At that time, the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop and Epic Games Store had not added an equivalent notice. Separately, GameStop is facing its own comparable lawsuit, Weber v. GameStop, filed in January 2026 over a purchase of Elden Ring Nightreign, alleging its digital storefront gives no license disclosure at all. That is a different company and a different case from the one against Sony.
What this case isn’t
It’s also worth being clear about what this case is not. It has nothing to do with the much larger PlayStation Store pricing lawsuits making news out of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, which accuse Sony of overcharging through its platform fees and are seeking far larger sums. Heycock v. Sony is narrower and specifically about checkout disclosure under California consumer law — not pricing, and not antitrust.
What buyers should do now
For now, PlayStation Store customers don’t need to do anything. The case is still working through preliminary motions, and the outcome of Sony’s motion — to be argued at the October 1 hearing — will help decide whether it continues as a lawsuit in open court or moves to private arbitration one plaintiff at a time.