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Update 21/01/2021: Valve responded to the European Commission’s claims, saying it did not agree with the Commission’s findings and the fine imposed on them. Read their full statement below. Original story from 01/20/2021.
Valve and a handful of game publishers have found themselves in hot water with the European Commission over geoblocking Steam keys in parts of Europe. The owners of Steam, along with Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company), were collectively fined € 7.8m (around £ 6.9m sterling) for “violating EU antitrust rules”.
“Valve and the publishers have restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games based on the geographic location of users in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’), entering into so-called ‘geo-blocking’ practices,” the A declared the Commission.
An investigation into Valve and the five publishers revealed that between 2010 and 2015 they had made agreements to geographically block certain Steam keys, which prevented them from being activated outside of Czechia, Poland, Hungary. , Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Geo-blocking is typically done so that games can be sold for less in low-income countries. However, people in high-income countries have often found ways in the past to bypass regional prices. Obviously, publishers aren’t a fan of this because it means these people are grabbing the lowest prices.
Valve did not cooperate with the investigation and was fined € 1,624,000 (approximately £ 1.4 million). The publishers cooperated, however, and saw their fines slightly reduced. Even so, SnowRunner and the publisher of Greedfall Focus Home managed to collect a fine of € 2,888,000 (around £ 2.6 million).
A breakdown of fines.
“The sanctions adopted today against the ‘geo-blocking’ practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers are a reminder that under EU competition law, companies do not have the right to contractually restrict cross-border sales, ”Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestage told me.
“Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU’s digital single market and the ability to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU.”
It’s nasty because the European Union’s digital single market is designed so that everyone who lives in the EU can buy and use products from all other EU countries.
It may not be the end either, as the Commission says, ‘any person or company affected by anti-competitive behavior as described in this case can take the case to the courts of the Member States and claim damages. -interests”.
Update: Last night, Valve released a statement to Eurogamer claiming that they had cooperated with the investigation and disagreed with the fine imposed on them:
“During the seven-year investigation, Valve cooperated extensively with the European Commission (‘EC’), providing the evidence and information requested. However, Valve refused to admit breaking the law, as requested by the EC. Valve disagrees with the EC’s findings and the fine imposed on Valve.
“The CE fee does not apply to the sale of PC games on Steam – Valve’s PC game service. Instead, the EC alleges that Valve enabled geo-blocking by providing Steam activation keys and – at the request of publishers – by locking those keys on particular territories (“region locks”) within the EEE. These keys allow a customer to activate and play a game on Steam when the user has purchased it from a third party reseller. Valve provides Steam activation keys for free and does not receive any share of the purchase price when a game is sold through third party resellers (such as a retailer or other online store).
“Regional locks only applied to a small number of game titles. Only about 3% of all games using Steam (and none of Valve’s games) at the time were subject to disputed region locks in the EEA. Valve believes that the extension of the EC’s liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by applicable law. Nonetheless, due to concerns from the EC, Valve actually disabled regional locks in the EEA as of 2015, unless those regional locks are necessary for local legal requirements (such as German content laws. ) or geographic limitations on locations where the Steam partner is authorized to distribute. a game. Removing regional locks can also cause publishers to raise prices in less wealthy regions to avoid price arbitrage. Sending activation keys from one country to another is free and the activation key is all that a user needs to activate and play a PC game. “