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The companies broke the antitrust law.
The European Commission has fined six publishing giants for geo-blocking Steam keys.
In a message posted on its website, the EC said it was fining Valve, as well as Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax of 7.8 million euros as a result of the ‘an investigation into whether they had violated European anti-trust rules.
In short, the European Commission took issue with the fact that publishers can set keys so that Steam is only activated in certain countries. This goes against the concept of the European digital single market.
Of the publishers fined, Valve was the only one not to cooperate, with the company fined € 1,624,000. Capcom received a 15% reduction for cooperation and a fine of € 396,000, while Bandai Namco, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax Media all received a 10% reduction, paying € 340,000 respectively, € 2,888,000, € 977,000 and € 1,664,000.
“More than 50% of all Europeans play video games,” said Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
“The video game industry in Europe is thriving 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 sales cross-border. Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU’s digital single market and the possibility of seeking the most suitable offer in the EU. “
This follows the consideration of the matter by the EC in 2017, prior to a preliminary investigation. In April 2019, he reported that the aforementioned companies were in violation of antitrust law.