Flavia Kenyon successfully appeared in the Court of Appeal in a landmark case concerning the legal status of in-game wealth, including Old School RuneScape (OSRS) gold pieces, and other virtual items.

The Court held that OSRS gold pieces are “property” within the meaning of section 4 of the Theft Act 1968, capable of being the subject of theft. In reaching that conclusion, the Court drew a clear and important distinction between a game’s proprietary source code and the instantiated digital value that represents a player’s gold balance and virtual items held within their account.

As the Court observed:

“Although the gold pieces exist in a virtual world, they have a real-world existence which manifests itself not only in their appearance and use on the screen but in real world trading. They are real functional things distinct from the code which creates them.”

and:

“The data itself, as distinct from the asset it represents, is not rivalrous… it may, in theory at least, be replicated on another computer without thereby representing anything of value to anyone… By contrast the thing which has value is the functional gold piece controlled by the game player.”

The Court also emphasised that OSRS gold pieces are not merely “pure information” or “pure knowledge”, stating that:

“…functionally they exist as identifiable assets distinct from the code which gives rise to them and outside the minds of people.”

The judgment represents an important development in the law’s treatment of digital property and virtual value, with potential implications for dishonesty offences, criminal investigations, and enforcement under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The case reflects Flavia’s specialist practice at the intersection of digital assets, virtual economies, fraud and financial crime, combining deep technical fluency with extensive courtroom advocacy in high-stakes proceedings involving novel questions of property and value in virtual environments.

Judgement: https://shorturl.at/JCJ76

Flavia Kenyon is recognised as a leading barrister by Legal 500 and is ranked Tier 1 for Crypto-assets and Blockchain.

For further information, please contact our clerking team.