A British court has decided that the indictment against Valve, brought in 2024, will not be dismissed. An advocate of children’s rights is suing the owners of Steam for damaging players with their commissions.
Great battles are being waged in the UK against the big platforms that sell video games.
It was first erected in 2022 class action lawsuit against Sony because of “too expensive games”. The accusation is based on the claim that Sony, with its dominant position in the market, has imposed an increase in the prices of PlayStation games and accessories, which is not fair to consumers. Sony faces a fine of eight billion dollars, and that court battle will begin on March 2 of this year.
At the end of 2024, a similar lawsuit was filed against Valve. It was raised by children’s digital rights advocate Vicki Shobolt, who claims that young PC gamers are being harmed by the high prices of game add-ons because Valve prohibits game publishers from selling them outside of Steam. The argument is that by taking a 30% commission for each DLC sold, Valve is denying users the opportunity for publishers to offer them cheaper.
You might say it’s a bit of a silly argument, but the court at the hearing decided that the lawsuit against Valve will not be dismissed, but the whole thing will end up in a court case.
Unlike Sony, Valve is not facing a huge fine. In case they lose the case, they would have to pay around 754 million euros. The more interesting part of the story would be if this dispute brings changes to Valve’s business, allowing games on Steam to sell DLC outside of Steam.