Valve is being sued in the UK for $843 million for 'overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position' with Steam
Valve is being sued in the UK for £656 million ($843 million) over claims that it uses Steam's dominance in the PC gaming marketplace to shut out competition and overcharge for games.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of children's digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt by law firm Milberg London (via the BBC), accuses Valve of «overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position in the UK.»
«Companies who hold a dominant position in a market are not allowed to charge excessive or anti-competitive prices,» Milberg said at steamyouoweus.co.uk, a website dedicated to the lawsuit. «They also cannot impose other unfair trading conditions that prevent or hinder others from competing with them.
»We believe Valve Corporation has been unfairly shutting out competition for PC games and in-game content, which has meant that UK customers have paid too much for these products."
The suit also alleges that Steam's pre-eminence has enabled Valve to continue charging «an excessive commission of up to 30%» to game publishers, which in turn «results in inflated prices for consumers.»
The lawsuit turns on three key points: That Valve imposes price parity obligation clauses on developers, preventing them from offering lower prices on other platforms; that all add-on content for games purchased on Steam must also be purchased through Steam, a practice known as tying; and that the cut it takes on all sales through Steam—the aforementioned «excessive commission»—has resulted in excessive pricing on games.
Valve has faced multiple Steam-related legal actions in the past: In 2018, for instance, it was slapped with a $2.4 million fine in Australia for Steam's lack of a refund policy prior to 2015, and in 2023 it ate a $1.73 million fine (originally imposed in 2021) for «geo-blocking» games—that is, preventing game keys purchase in some geographic regions from being activated in other locations. That's a lot of money, but it's also a relative drop in the bucket: A 2023 VG
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