Nearly two years after filing complaints, the European Union is demanding remedies from Valve and other publishers for geoblocking games. The European Commission has fined Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and Bethesda owner ZeniMax a total of 7.8 million euros (more than $ 9.4 million) for restricting access to some Steam games between EU countries. According to officials, the competition law has been violated, preventing companies from restricting cross-border sales in the Union.
According to the Commission, there were various geo-blocking agreements between Valve and the publishers between September 2010 and October 2015. The publishers saw that their fines were reduced by at least 10 percent because they cooperated with regulators, but Valve is right on a full fine (more than € 1.6 million, or more than $ 1.9 million) for defending the charges.