A few years ago, the European Commission launched an investigation into possible breaches of EU law by Valve and five publishers – Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax, to which currently belongs, among others Bethesda, Arkane, id Software or Obsidian. The situation crashed (and still crashes) with the introduction of regional blockades within the member states of the community. And more humanly – it was about preventing the purchase of games at lower prices, for example in Poland, and launching them in another country. It was then that European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, stressed that e-commerce should give customers a wider range of goods to choose from, and also allow them to buy across national borders.

The European Commission fined Valve and five video game publishers with a total penalty of 7.8 million euros. This penalty is related to the imposition of price geoblocks on the Steam platform.

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The initial opinion about the investigation appeared many years after its start, exactly in 2019 of the year and confirmed the previous EU assumptions. Valve quickly responded to the allegations, noting that only 3% of the codes on Steam have some form of regional blockade, with none of them coming directly from Valve. What’s more, Valve noticed that the codes that activate games on Steam are generated by the company for free and the company does not derive any financial benefits from selling them. The case died down for a while, but already then there was speculation that the possible submission of Valve to the European Union would force the equalization of game prices in Europe, and thus their increase (there is no need to count prices down to catch up with the lowest). It took another two years for the case to move a (slight) step forward. And so yesterday the European Commission imposed a fine on Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax, with a total value of EUR 7.8 million.

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The very Valve was fined 1.8 million euros. The company was the only one that allegedly refused to cooperate with the European Commission. Same as in 2019, Valve quickly appealed the decision, disagreeing with the EC’s findings. Valve also pointed out to the European Commission that Valve refused to cooperate, which was justified by the words: “Valve worked closely with the European Commission to provide the requested evidence and information. Nevertheless, we do not admit to breaking the law as requested by the EC” (source: Eurogamer). The owner of the gaming platform first of all emphasizes that extending liability for geoblocks to Valve is against all regulations. The company’s position has not changed for years, although this time Valve itself officially admitted that the removal of regional blockades will result in higher game prices in less wealthy EU member states. Well, there are indications that this battle will continue for a while, and that the players will not ultimately benefit from it. At least not those in our country.

Source: Eurogamer, KE