European Commission fines six video games companies

The fine amounts to a total of EUR 7.8 million.

Valve Corporation, the owner of the largest Steam video game distribution platform, and five video game publishers were fined 7.8 million euros by the European Commission for blocking cross-border sales. The financial punishment followed a four-year investigation that was part of the European Commission's campaign against restricting cross-border online trade in the bloc. Valve, which does not consider that it did wrong, was fined EUR 1.66 million. The fines for five video game publishers: Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, which belongs to Embracer Group AB, and ZeniMax, were reduced by 10 to 15 percent after they admitted to the offenses. The Commission has stated that the practices of these companies have prevented consumers in the European Union from making purchases of more than € 17 billion on the European market. "Today's sanctions against the geographical blocking practices of Valve and five video game publishers are a reminder that EU competition law prohibits companies from contractually restricting cross-border sales," said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. According to the Commission, Valve and the game publishers agreed to geographically block certain computer video games outside a specific territory, which affected the sale of around 100 video games.