Gaming big Steam accused of ripping off 14m UK players

The proprietor of Steam – the most important digital distribution platform for PC video games on the planet – is being sued for £656m.

Valve Company is being accused of utilizing its market dominance to overcharge 14 million folks within the UK.

“Valve is rigging the market and making the most of UK players,” mentioned digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt, who’s bringing the case.

Valve has been contacted for remark.

The declare – which has been filed on the Competitors Attraction Tribunal, in London – accuses Valve of “shutting out” competitors within the PC gaming market.

It says Valve “forces” recreation publishers to enroll to so-called value parity obligations, stopping titles being offered at cheaper costs on rival platforms.

Ms Shotbolt says this has enabled Steam to cost an “extreme fee of as much as 30%”, making UK customers pay an excessive amount of for buying PC video games and add-on content material.

The case is what is named a collective motion declare, which implies that one particular person goes to court docket on behalf of a a lot bigger group of individuals.

Ms Shotbolt – who accuses Valve of breaching UK competitors legislation for not less than six years – says she is bringing the declare “to cease this illegal conduct and assist folks get again what they’re owed.”

Steam is a PC gaming platform the place gamers can purchase video games and buy in-game extras.

Based on VG Insights, it had record-breaking gross sales in 2023, producing over $9bn (£7.1bn) in world income.

This was pushed by 580m video games offered and 14,000 new video games launched.

Nevertheless, the market is extraordinarily concentrated, with the highest 10 bestselling video games making up 61% of all gross sales.

The highest 100 video games account for 91% of whole gross sales.

The declare is backed by authorized agency Milberg London LLP, which brings group motion instances towards giant firms.

“Competitors legislation is there to guard customers and be sure that markets work correctly,” mentioned Natasha Pearman, a accomplice on the legislation agency.

“Once they don’t work correctly and customers are harmed, collective actions of this type present customers with a voice and a manner of holding huge firms, like Valve, to account.”

It’s the newest in a sequence of collective motion authorized instances towards huge tech.

Different claims lodged on the Competitors Attraction Tribunal have sought compensation from Fb, Google and Sony.