EU Commission fines Valve and five PC publishers €7.8 million for 'geo-blocking' games

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The European Commission has fined Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax a combined total of €7.8 million for breaching antitrust rules. Valve did not cooperate with the Commission (a claim that the company denies), and was fined €1.6 million, while the fines for the other five publishers were slightly reduced for their cooperation (not that this helped Focus Home Interactive, which received the biggest share of the fine by far: a whopping €2.9 million of the total).

The judgement is the result of one of three investigations began in 2017, and today the Commission writes that: "Valve and the publishers restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games on the basis of the geographical location of users within the European Economic Area (‘EEA'), entering into, the so called “geo-blocking” practices." The companies thus "partitioned the EEA market in violation of EU antitrust rules."

https://www.pcgamer.com/eu-commissi...ishers-euro78-million-for-geo-blocking-games/
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55749954

Valve, owner of online PC gaming platform Steam, and five other publishers have been fined a total of €7.8m (£6.9m) for restricting cross-border sales of PC video games.
So-called geo-blocking means games are locked, so that a cheaper licence intended for less well-off European countries cannot be used elsewhere.
That stopped gamers "shopping around" for the best deals, said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
Valve said that it planned to appeal.

Will this mean we can shop around the EU for cheaper Steam games, oh hang on Brexit damn :)

On another note without getting too political already seen news articles on people buying stuff from EU and getting charged £50-£100 in import and VAT charges that they didnt know about.
I think Pro Brexit people forgot a long time ago we had to pay these charges just like you do when buying from USA and now they are back.
Forget buying that 4k Monitor from Germany because its in stock and cheaper than the UK :(
Reading the latest OCUK update I think OCUK are having to redo their procedures for selling outside the UK etc.
 
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We're no longer part of the EU so this comission is irrelevant to us, would only apply to legit Euro nation inhabitants if it was enforced that you're allowed to buy from other regions at cheaper prices
 
We're no longer part of the EU so this comission is irrelevant to us, would only apply to legit Euro nation inhabitants if it was enforced that you're allowed to buy from other regions at cheaper prices
It is relevant you are outside the EU. Therefore the UK can be geo blocked. Unlike the rest of Europe.
 
Love how companies offload the work to countries with cheap labour but freak out when customers try to take the same advantage.
 
Dumb policy by the EU. This was a great thing for players in poorer countries. Instead its removal will simply lead to more piracy & less revenue for game companies.
 
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