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The European Commission has fined Valve and five game publishers for the practice of “geo-blocking” PC games in Europe.
Along with Focus Home, Koch Media and Bethesda, Capcom and Bandai Namco (the companies behind the Street Fighter and Tekken franchises) are due to shell out their share of the $ 9.5 million penalty.
In some ways, the gaming world is getting smaller and smaller thanks to huge platforms like Valve’s Steam, which allow users to download and stream games. This massive platform is the go-to source for PC gaming for many people around the world, but certain agreements between Valve and the aforementioned publishers place illegal restrictions on users.
Geo-blocking is a process that essentially denies players the freedom to buy games in other countries (often at a reduced price) and play them in another, and is prohibited by competition law. EU.
Valve has offered Capcom, Bandai, and the others a Territory Control feature that allows for geo-restrictions when activating Steam keys for various titles. The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, made a statement in this regard.
“More than 50% of all Europeans play video games,” she begins. “The video game industry in Europe is flourishing and is now worth more than 17 billion euros. Today’s sanctions against the ‘geo-blocking’ practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers are a reminder that ‘Under EU competition law, companies are prohibited from contractually restricting cross-border sales. Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU’s digital single market and the opportunity to seek most suitable offer in the EU.
Capcom and the other publishers have had their initial fines reduced for agreeing to cooperate with the EC by assisting in the investigation and expressly acknowledging breaches of EU antitrust rules.
After a 15% and 10% reduction, respectively, Capcom’s total final fee landed around $ 480,000 while Bandai landed around $ 410,000. Valve chose not to cooperate and was ultimately fined $ 1.9 million.
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