Valve Faces Legal Actions from British Players for Alleged Market Manipulation

TapTechNews June 13th, Valve is facing a new wave of legal actions from British players for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the PC gaming sector. More than 14 million British players have jointly filed a lawsuit, accusing Valve of manipulating the market and raising the prices of games through the Steam platform, demanding compensation for a total loss of more than £656 million (TapTechNews note: currently about ¥6.069 billion).

The law firm representing the players, MilbergLondon, said that Valve forces game publishers to sign price-matching agreements to ensure that the Steam platform always has the lowest game prices and prevents competitors from offering more favorable prices. MilbergLondon believes that this behavior has led British consumers to pay too much for games and in-game purchases over the past at least six years.

This lawsuit alleges that Valve has violated the UK competition law and aims to end its alleged monopolistic behavior and recover losses for the affected consumers. Natasha Pearman, a lawyer at MilbergLondon, said, Valve is manipulating the market and harming the interests of British players. Competition law is designed to protect the rights and interests of consumers and ensure the normal operation of the market. When the market fails and the rights and interests of consumers are damaged, such class-action lawsuits can give consumers a voice and allow them the opportunity to hold companies like Valve accountable.

Valve dominates the PC gaming market through its Steam platform, which had a peak concurrent user count of more than 34 million last month. If the lawsuit is successful, it is estimated that each of the more than 14 million British Steam users could receive a portion of the compensation.

It is worth noting that this case has similarities to another lawsuit for £7.9 billion against the commission and pricing of Sony's PlayStation Store. Both lawsuits believe that the 30% platform fee charged by Valve and Sony is too high.