Recently, the EU General Court (GC) made the final call on a highly significant antitrust case involving game publishers and geo-blocking strategies. On September 27, 2023, the GC rejected an appeal by Valve Corporation, affirming a January 2021 decision made by the European Commission (Commission).
The Commission’s original ruling found that Valve Corporation, along with five other PC video game publishers, had restricted competition. The corporations achieved this through the implementation of geo-blocking strategies for specific PC video games, which stands in opposition to Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
The case’s core issue revolved around the “geo-blocking” practice in the video game industry. The term referrs to the application of restrictive strategies that prevent consumers in one geographic region from purchasing or using a product or service in another. This catch is particularly prevalent in the digital arena, where products like video games—often cheaper in one country than another—can theoretically be bought from anywhere with an internet connection.
It is this practice that the Commission and subsequently the Court identified as posing an antitrust breach. The ruling affirms that the actions undertaken by Valve and the five game publishers served to prevent the EU’s intended competition law, may have hindered the cherished goals of a unified digital single market.
Competition law experts have marked this as a resounding message to other entities across different sectors who might be using identical or similar strategies. It emphasizes that the digital single market’s principles should be respected, and breaches of this nature will be met with considerable fines.
Know more on the subject by going through the complete case analysis report by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.