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The European Commission announced in a press release that it was fining Valve and five other publishers for “geo-blocking” PC games, preventing their sale across borders in the EU. Valve has previously said it plans to appeal the ruling and has now issued a much longer statement explaining its position on the EC findings.
The fine is for Steam activation keys provided to developers – not games sold directly on Steam. “Valve provides Steam activation keys free of charge” to developers, a company representative tells us, and these keys are often then sold through a third-party store. Valve said that “only about 3% of all games using Steam (and none of Valve’s games) at the time were subject to the contested region locks in the EEA.”
The company adds that it “considers that the extension of the EC’s liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by applicable law.” However, Valve also says that it already stopped region-locking games in the EEA in 2015, except where required by law to ban the sale of certain games in specific regions.
You can read Valve’s response in full below.
Valve Declaration:
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 games 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).
Region 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 a user needs to activate and play a PC game.
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