Europa Universalis 4 has some stiff competition these days. Between Civilization 6, Crusader Kings, Age of Empires, and the upcoming Cities Skylines 2, the strategy genre is bursting at the seams right now, and that’s not even counting Ara History Untold and Paradox’s new strat sim Millennia. Nevertheless, EU4 stands out for its depth and historical detail. If you like intricate diplomacy and politics, grand military machinations, and a focus on the defining ages of the distant past, Europa Universalis 4 is still the boss. And it’s about to get even bigger thanks to a new expansion, King of Kings.
Steam key geo-blocking infringed EU competition law, court finds
28.09.2023 - 11:59 / eurogamer.net
Valve has failed to convince the European Union's Court of Justice that it did not infringe EU law by geo-blocking activation keys on Steam.
Five other video game publishers were also found to have breached anti-competitive practices: Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax.
As a reminder, the European Commission announced plans back in 2017 to investigate Valve and the aforementioned PC game publishers over suspected anti-competitive practices.
As we previously reported, the Commission had suspicions that agreements between Valve and the publishers broke EU competition rules by restricting retail prices or excluding customers from certain offers because of their nationality or location.
The Commission aimed to find out whether the agreements between Valve and the publishers required the use of activation keys for the purpose of geo-blocking — preventing consumers from using digital content because of a their location or country of residence.
Now, a new ruling from has concluded Valve and the five publishers had indeed infringed EU law, after Valve tried to convince it otherwise.
Valve tried to state it had not infringed the law by arguing that publishers had the right to charge different prices for their games in different countries. However, the court has dismissed this.
«In agreeing bilaterally to that geo-blocking, the operator of the Steam platform, Valve and five PC video games publishers unlawfully restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games that are compatible with that platform,» the court said. This instance of geo-blocking was then «used to eliminate parallel imports of those video games and protect the high royalty amounts collected by the publishers, or the margins earned by Valve».
Here's the court's decision in more detail:
«The General Court finds that the Commission established to the requisite legal standard the existence of an agreement or concerted practice between Valve and each of the five publishers having as its object the restriction of parallel imports through geo-blocking of keys enabling activation and, in certain cases, use of the video games at issue on the Steam platform,» it stated.
«That geo-blocking sought to prevent the video games, distributed in certain countries at low prices, from being purchased by distributors or users located in other countries where prices are much higher. Thus, the geo-blocking at issue did not pursue an objective of protecting the copyright of the publishers of the PC video games, but was used to eliminate parallel imports of those video games and protect the high royalty amounts collected by the publishers, or the margins earned by Valve.
»In response to a number of arguments put forward by Valve, the
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