In the United Kingdom, Valve she was sued for 843 million dollars, approximately 780 million euros. The accusation is of having exploited its dominant position in the market to prevent others competing platforms to offer purchasing solutions cheaper. All this has done nothing but create situations a to the detriment of consumers.
According to reports it seems that Valve forced developers and publishers to sign agreements price parity. In this way Steam would have lower prices, while other competing platforms are precluded from selling games at lower prices.
New accusations against Valve
Vicki Shotboltthe digital rights activist who filed the lawsuit, said the situation allowed the company to charge high fees (up to 30%) which have led British consumers to pay excessive amounts for games and in-game content, for at least 6 years.
Considering the above, Valve is manipulating the market and you are taking advantage of consumers
. According to the lawyer Natasha Pearman the right to competition serves to prevent situations of this type from happening. When consumers come damaged it is important that they act collective actions like the one against Valve. In this way it will be possible to give a voice to those who find themselves in difficulty. The ongoing lawsuit seeks to terminate the allegations anti-competitive practices of the company and at the same time help the customers involved to recover what they spent. We will have to wait to understand how the situation will evolve.
What happened with Valve presents some similitudes with what happened with Sony for the prices of PlayStation Store. In this case, the complaint was filed with Competition Appeal Tribunal of London and accused the company of applying commissions of 30% on all sales. In this way, prices were high, especially to the detriment of consumers who relied on the PlayStation Store to purchase their games.
