In brief: Steam owner Valve is being sued for £656 million ($843.2 million) over claims that it has overcharged 14 million PC gamers in the UK. The class action alleges that Valve abuses its market dominance and charges an excessive commission, leading to consumers paying too much for their games and other content from Steam.
The case, which was brought by digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt, accuses Valve of shutting out competition in the PC gaming market by forcing publishers into signing price-parity obligations. According to the suit, these ensure Steam always has the best prices and prevent games from being sold cheaper on rival platforms.
Shotbolt says this has enabled Valve to continue charging publishers an "excessive" commission of up to 30% and led to UK consumers paying too much for their games and DLC. The company is accused of breaching UK competition law for at least six years, writes the BBC. The suit aims to stop Valve's conduct and help people reclaim "what they are owed."
"UK gamers spend billions every year and Valve has a stranglehold on the PC gaming market. Competition law is there to protect consumers and ensure that markets work properly," said Natasha Pearman, leading partner at Milberg London, which has backed the claim. "When they don't work properly and consumers are harmed, collective actions of this kind provide consumers with a voice and a way of holding big companies, like Valve, to account."
The case bears many similarities to a 2022 class-action lawsuit brought against Sony in the UK, which was also filed by Milberg. The Japanese gaming giant is being sued for $7.9 billion over claims it ripped people off by overcharging consumers for games and in-game purchases from its PlayStation Store. It says around nine million people have been affected.
Should the claim prove successful, each person in the Sony suit could receive between $80 and $663 in damages. Like Valve, Sony takes a 30% commission from sales. In November, a UK tribunal blocked Sony's attempt to dismiss the suit.
The size of the cut that platform owners take from developers has long been a contentious area, especially when it comes to Apple and its 30% slice. The fee was a big part of Cupertino's fight with Epic, which likes to point out that it charges devs just 12% commission.
Steam broke its concurrent user record, again, in March when 34,649,583 people were logged into the platform simultaneously. Its record-breaking game sales (over 580 million) in 2023 generated more than $9 billion of revenue globally.