Valve was fined €1.6 million ($1.7 million) for obstructing the sale of certain PC video games outside Europe. However, the company pleaded not guilty.
Wait, outside Europe?
Some countries make it illegal to buy certain video games. If Valve can’t geoblock sale of them outside Europe, how are they supposed to conform with both sets of laws?
I remember that the EU didn’t want country-specific pricing inside the EU, and had some case over that. That I get, because I can see the EU having an interest in not wanting it creating problems for mobility around the EU. But I hadn’t heard about the EU going after vendors for not selling things outside Europe.
Okay this article is shittily worded and the Bloomberg article it links to is paywalled so I found this which goes into much greater detail.
TLDR: Valve and five other publisher’s were blocking activation of keys sold to people/distributors from distributors/vendors who purchased them from cheaper regions.
Wait, outside Europe?
Some countries make it illegal to buy certain video games. If Valve can’t geoblock sale of them outside Europe, how are they supposed to conform with both sets of laws?
I remember that the EU didn’t want country-specific pricing inside the EU, and had some case over that. That I get, because I can see the EU having an interest in not wanting it creating problems for mobility around the EU. But I hadn’t heard about the EU going after vendors for not selling things outside Europe.
Okay this article is shittily worded and the Bloomberg article it links to is paywalled so I found this which goes into much greater detail.
TLDR: Valve and five other publisher’s were blocking activation of keys sold to people/distributors from distributors/vendors who purchased them from cheaper regions.
Ah yes, that thing my brother likes to do where he VPNs into another country and then buys them at the greatly reduced local prices.
Guess they were attempting to crack down on purchase frauds and legitimate buyers got burned too?
It was punishing the consumer rather than the distributors abusing the regional pricing.
Yes, but it was the part they have control over. The alternative is not having regional pricing allowing lower income countries to buy games at all.