The EU has fined Valve and five publishers a total of € 7.8 million (USD $ 9.5 million) for their practice of ‘geo-blocking’ PC games on Steam, basically meaning that users are (e.g. Germany) are forced to pay only the German price for a game, instead of having them buy a cheaper version of the same game from another European country.
Geo-blocking is in violation of EU antitrust rules and so the five publishers mentioned – Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax (Bethesda) – were fined approximately € 6.2 million. As owners and operators of Steam, Valve – which “chose not to cooperate with the Commission” – was fined € 1.6 million.
“Today’s sanctions against the” geo-blocking “practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers are a reminder that EU competition law prohibits companies from contractually restricting cross-border sales,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of EU competition says. “Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and the ability to search for the most suitable offer in the EU”.
If the “Valve chose not to cooperate” thing sounds familiar, it’s because of the company was similarly unhelpful when faced with lawsuits in Australia, before the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission forced their hand.