Publisher problems

I have a friend who published a game on Steam through a publisher last year in summer. But they only payed him the first month then they didn't even responded to his emails. Funny thing they send him invoices each month, so he knows how many games they have sold.
The respective publisher have 2 offices, in Paris and in San Francisco. It is not clear if they are an European based business or American one.

I was wondering what legal actions can be taken to force the publisher to respect the contract, as they agreed in contract to pay monthly for the games they sold.

P.S. The game was made with Unity and my friend is Romanian and such his business is in EU.
P.P.S. I am writing this because he still hope they are going to pay him, but I believe they dont intend to do that and just ignore him because is a small indie dev. To me, it is clear that the respective publisher is a scammer.

 

For legal action, it all comes down to the contract your friend signed with the publisher. Worth getting it checked over for legal action.

 

Lawyers, ASAP. The original contract should have had legal review too. Cross country cases can be very difficult to pursue.

After that all you can do is name and shame in the internet. Enough bad reviews from enough different people and the company will find it hard to do business.

 

Threshold payments are also reasonably standard. You don't get paid until you earn over a certain amount of money.

 

The contract states that payments will be made monthly. He waited for 4 months now and what is making him thinking of a legal action is the fact that they don't respond to emails.
@Aurore, that's a very good suggestion, thank you.

 

The contract should say in which jurisdiction the contract applies. That will be the country where any legal action should be taken if needed.

 

The legal issues are hard in the real world then imagine what happens in the virtual world, sadly the authorities have not resources for resolve almost legal problems in the real world less for this class of legal problems in internet bussines, in resume sorry but web legal issues rarely have solution for normal people.

 

Go see a lawyer. Stop talking online, it can only be used against you anyway.

 

I doubt it can be used against me. As I said, is a friend of mine.
I am not in the habit of hiding behind words, to pretend this happen to someone else.

 

Cool, I've locked the thread since it's pointless and there's no place for it here. It's a legal matter. Tell your friend to use a lawyer.