They are in maintenance....will be at least. I know it doesn't connect directly to the problem but it might mean something down the line.
http://help.ea.com/en/article/ea-help-support-services-maintenance/
As for how it still happens with digital purchases...I'd imagine that regardless that information is stored within servers or perhaps even in variables within the server. If the server has a problem with storing that content, it could do something like this.
But then again, I'm no EA representive so take it with a grain of salt.