Valve was then sued in the UK for 768 million euros for “abuse of dominance”…

This is not the first time Valve has faced an antitrust lawsuit. This time, the owners of Steam are facing a 768 million euro British lawsuit for “abusing their dominance,” which allowed them to “overbill 14 million PC gamers.” All this was said by the plaintiff, Vicki Shotbolt, the campaign manager for children’s digital rights at the Milberg law firm in London, via the BBC.

Steamyouoweus.co.uk explains in more detail why the law firm decided to sue Valve.

“Companies with a dominant position in the market cannot charge excessive or anti-competitive prices. Nor can they impose other unfair trading conditions that prevent or make it difficult for others to compete with them,” they explain.

One section of the complaint returns to the perennial controversy surrounding game publishers’ “excessive commission of up to 30%”, which contributes to “increased prices for consumers”. Milberg London believes that “Valve Corporation has unfairly foreclosed competition in PC games and in-game content, resulting in UK customers paying too much for these products”.

More details on the Valve lawsuit

PC Gamer reports that a lawsuit against Valve alleges that the Gabe Newell-led company imposes price parity clauses on developers. This prevents them from offering lower prices than other platforms. They are also accused of charging the aforementioned “excessive commission of up to 30%”. Also, all additional content (such as DLC) for Steam games must go through the Steam shop itself.

It should be noted that before the suit can go to court, it must be accepted by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal. So we will have to wait a few more months for that, although it is also possible that the TAC will reject the complaint, and everything will continue as usual.

Source: BBC, steamyouoweus.co.uk, PC Gamer