Valve are violating EU antitrust rules for locking games.
Following an ongoing European Commission (EC) investigation into Valve, it has been revealed that the company is preventing consumers from purchasing video games from other member states, in breach of EU competition rules.
Valve , Bandai Namco , Zenimax , Capcom , Focus Home Interactive and Koch Media have been under investigation since 2013 and the EC “opened formal antitrust proceedings into agreements signed between Valve Corporation and the five video game publishers in 2017” .
A few days later, the French commercial gaming group, Syndicat National du Jeu Vidé, issued a statement in defense of Valve, supporting the reasons why geo-blocking.
“In a true Digital Single Market, European consumers should have the right to buy and play video games of their choice, regardless of where they live in the EU,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “Consumers should not be prevented from shopping between Member States to find the best deal available.”
Valve responded to this statement by saying that "EC fees are not related to the sale of PC games on Steam."
The allegations concern Steam activation keys, which Valve states it provides “free of charge” and does not “receive any share of the purchase price when a game is sold by third-party resellers.”.
Valve disabled region locks in 2015, with the exception of those that were "necessary for local legal requirements.".
The EC will conduct its first assessment by March 2020, but until then, Vale and the five other companies can either comply with EU regulations or present an argument in favor of geo-blocking.
