The European Commission has announced in a press release that it has fined Valve and five other publishers for ‘geo-blocking’ computer games, preventing their sales across EU borders. Valve has already said it intends to appeal against the ruling, and has now issued a much longer statement explaining its position on the EC’s findings.
The fine applies to steam activation keys provided to developers – not games sold directly on Steam. “Valve offers Steam activation keys for free” to developers, a company representative said, and the keys are then regularly sold through a third-party store. Valve says “about 3% of all games that Steam used (and none of Valve’s own games) were subject to disputed territorial locks in the EEA at the time.”
The company adds that it “considers that the EC’s liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by the applicable legislation.” However, Valve also says that the closure of regional games in the EEA has already been stopped in 2015, except where the law requires it to ban the sale of certain games in specific regions.
You can read Valve’s answer in full below.
Valve’s statement:
During the seven-year investigation, Valve cooperated extensively with the European Commission (“EC”) and provided evidence and information as requested. However, Valve did not want to admit that it violated the law, as demanded by the EC. Valve does not agree with the EC findings and the fine imposed against Valve.
EC charges are not related to the sale of computer games on Steam – Valve’s computer game service. Instead, the EC claims that Valve made geo-blocking possible by providing steam activation keys and – at the request of the publishers – locking the keys in certain areas (“regional locks”) within the EEA. Such keys allow a customer to activate and play a game on Steam if the user purchased it from a third-party seller. Valve offers Steam Activation Keys for free and receives no share of the purchase price when a game is sold by third-party retailers (such as a retailer or other online store).
The regional locks only apply to a small number of game titles. About 3% of all games using Steam at the time (and none of Valve’s own games) were subject to the disputed regional locks in the EEA at the time. Valve is of the opinion that the EC’s liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by the applicable legislation. Due to EC concerns, Valve nevertheless eliminated regional locks within the EEA in 2015, unless the regional locks were necessary for local legal requirements (such as German content laws) or geographical restrictions on where the Steam partner was licensed to distribute. a game. Eliminating regional locks can also lead to publishers raising prices in less affluent regions to avoid price arbitrage. There is no cost involved in sending activation keys from one country to another, and the activation key is all that a user needs to activate and play a computer game.