Valve Corporation is being sued for £656 million (around $843 million USD or so) with the largest digital distribution platform for PC gamers being accused of using its market dominance to overcharge 14 million PC gamers in the UK.
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Vicki Shotbolt, a digital rights campaigner who is bringing the case, said: “Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers“. The claim has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunual in London, accusing Valve of “shutting out” competition in the PC gaming market.
They’re claiming that Valve “forces” game publishers to sign up to price parity obligations, which prevents games from being sold at cheaper prices on rival digital platforms. Shotbolt said that this has enabled Steam to charge an “excessive commission of up to 30%” making UK consumers pay too much to buy PC games and add-on content for those games.
The claim reads: “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“.
Natasha Pearman, leading partner at Milberg London, which has backed the claim, said: “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. 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“.
Valve broke its concurrent record of gamers on Steam in March, where an astonishing 34,649,583 people were logged into Steam at once. Valve also saw record-breaking game sales (over 580 million games) in 2023, which generated over $9 billion of revenue globally.
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