Valve hit with £656 million lawsuit for “overcharging 14 million UK PC Gamers”

Steam Owner Valve accused of “rigging the market” to take advantage of the UK’s PC gamers

Valve, the company behind Steam, the largest digital distribution platform for PC games, has been hut with a major lawsuit in the UK. Valve are being sued for £656 million for using the domination of the PC market to overcharge 14 million of the UK’s PC gamers.

Vicki Shotbolt, the digital rights campaigner that is bringing this case to court, stated to the BBC that “Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers”. The claim accuses Valve of “shutting out” competition within the PC gaming market. It is stated that Valve “forces” game publishers to sign up to price parity obligations. These obligations prevent them from selling their games for less in rival platforms.

The case claims that these tactics have allowed Valve to charge an “excessive commission of up to 30%”. As such, UK gamers are forced to pay too much when purchasing PC games and downloadable content. Vicki Shotbolt claims that Valve has been breaching the UK’s competition law for at least six years. With this case, Ms Shotbolt aims to stop this “unlawful conduct”. Additionally, this case will help UK gamers “get back what they are owed”.

Last year, Valve generated over $9 billion in global revenue. That’s £7.1 billion in UK terms. This was driven by over 580 million game sales. Currently, it is unknown when this case will make it to court and be judged.

While £656 million is a lot of money, it is a drop in the ocean for Valve. Steam is an incredibly profitable platform, and Valve’s profits are in the billions. Even if Valve loses this case, any damaged they receive will not be enough to harm the company..

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