It’s nothing new that one or another company in the gaming industry is sued. However, a new lawsuit in Great Britain involves a completely insane sum.
Valve will not be happy about this. In a new class action lawsuit, the company is being sued by a digital rights activ ist for a whopping 656 million British pounds on the grounds that Valve is manipulating the games market via Steam and deliberately preventing competition.
The lawsuit is brought by activist Vicki Shotbolt, who accuses Valve of abusing Steam’s dominant market position and thus violating British competition law. As a result, 14 million players were charged too high prices for games and are each entitled to compensation of between 22 and 44 pounds. Details of the allegations are also available visible on a website.
Three issues are at the heart of the lawsuit, starting with the claim that Valve imposes price parity clauses on publishers and developers that prevent them from selling titles on rival platforms at cheaper prices. The lawsuit argues that this limits consumer choice and harms competition.
Valve’s decision not to allow customers to buy DLC for its Steam games on rival platforms also “limits competition in the market.” Combined with an “excessive commission of up to 30 percent” that has led to “excessive prices on Steam,” the lawsuit alleges, this means that UK consumers are paying too much to buy PC games and DLC.
Shotbolt is represented by law firm Milberg London LLP, which specializes in class action lawsuits against large corporations. The firm has already brought a similar lawsuit against Sony – the case was allowed to proceed in November despite Sony’s vehement objections, but is still pending.