wraggster
January 21st, 2021, 21:29
The European Commission has ruled that Valve and five publishers breached EU antitrust rules, and fined them a combined €7.8 million.
The five publishers impacted are Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax, which, alongside Steam's parent company Valve, were accused of geo-blocking practices between 2010 and 2015, across around 100 games.
The European Commission said (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_170) that they "restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games on the basis of the geographical location of users within the European Economic Area ('EEA'), entering into the so called 'geo-blocking' practices."
That essentially means that, as part of concerted practices, Valve provided publishers with Steam activation keys locked to particular regions within the EEA. These keys as a result couldn't be activated outside of Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
This goes against the EU's Single Market, with the European Commission's executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager noting, back when the investigation emerged in 2019 (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-05-six-game-companies-accused-of-geo-blocking-by-eu-antitrust-commission), that "European consumers should have the right to buy and play video games of their choice regardless of where they live in the EU."
EU fines Valve and five publishers €7.8m for geo-blocking practices | GamesIndustry.biz (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-20-eu-fines-valve-and-five-publishers-7-8m-for-geo-blocking-practices)
The five publishers impacted are Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax, which, alongside Steam's parent company Valve, were accused of geo-blocking practices between 2010 and 2015, across around 100 games.
The European Commission said (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_170) that they "restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games on the basis of the geographical location of users within the European Economic Area ('EEA'), entering into the so called 'geo-blocking' practices."
That essentially means that, as part of concerted practices, Valve provided publishers with Steam activation keys locked to particular regions within the EEA. These keys as a result couldn't be activated outside of Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
This goes against the EU's Single Market, with the European Commission's executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager noting, back when the investigation emerged in 2019 (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-05-six-game-companies-accused-of-geo-blocking-by-eu-antitrust-commission), that "European consumers should have the right to buy and play video games of their choice regardless of where they live in the EU."
EU fines Valve and five publishers €7.8m for geo-blocking practices | GamesIndustry.biz (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-20-eu-fines-valve-and-five-publishers-7-8m-for-geo-blocking-practices)