Do you know what my favourite part of the job is? Reporting news stories where I get to type out monetary numbers far greater than I’ll ever have in my entire life like it’s just no big deal.
In today’s edition of “Let’s just keyboard smash numbers and pretend that that is an actual amount of money”, Valve is being sued in the UK for £656 million or, to bring it home, R15,448,308,000.00.
This disgusting number is because Valve is being accused of using Steam’s dominance in the PC gaming marketplace to shut out competition and overcharge for games.
The suit is being filed on behalf of children’s digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt. It accuses Valve of overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position in the UK.
On steamyouoweus.co.uk, a website dedicated to the lawsuit, a quote reads:
Companies who hold a dominant position in a market are not allowed to charge excessive or anti-competitive prices.
They also cannot impose other unfair trading conditions that prevent or hinder others from competing with them.
We believe Valve Corporation has been unfairly shutting out competition for PC games and in-game content, which has meant that UK customers have paid too much for these products.
The lawsuit also claims that Steam’s position in the market has allowed it to charge an excessive commission of up to 30% to game publishers, resulting in inflated consumer prices.
The lawsuit itself is three-pronged. It states that Valve imposes price parity obligation clauses on developers, meaning they cannot offer lower prices on other platforms.
It also points out that all add-on content must be purchased through Steam and that Valve’s cut has resulted in excessive pricing on games.
Valve’s 30% commission has been hotly contested by developers over the years, with many pointing to the fact that other digital storefronts, including the Epic Games Store and Microsoft store, only take 12%.
The lawsuit is also being filed as a collective action, which is very similar legally to a class action in that one person represents an entire group, which in this case is about 14 million Steam users in the UK.
As it stands now, the claim must first be authorised by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal before it can proceed to trial. However, the Tribunal authorised a similar case against Sony in 2022 in November 2023, so it’s highly likely that this case will follow.
What are your thoughts on Valve’s pricing and practices? Let me know in the comments while we collectively hold thumbs for cheaper games.