Steam’s parent company, Valve, is being sued in the UK for allegedly scamming 14 million gamers within the country. The lawsuit seeks £656 million (~RM3.94 billion) from the game platform, after it had “overcharged” the gamers.
The lawsuit, which was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, specifically accuses Valve of “rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers” and shutting out the competition in the PC gaming market. The plaintiff, Vicki Shotbolt, says that the company forces game publishers to sign up to what they call price parity obligations, which prevents titles from being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms, such as Epic Games’ own platform.
By doing this, Shotbolt says that Valve has been able to charge an excessive commission of up to 30%, which they believe is far too much for consumers and gamers in the UK.
At the time of writing, Valve did not respond or comment on the UK lawsuit.
(Source: BBC)
