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Sony is being sued by a consumer rights advocacy group for charging a commission fee of 30% on all digital items on the PlayStation UK store. This is a class action lawsuit that plans on distributing billions of dollars to people who have been using Sony’s PlayStation UK store since August 2016, reported Sky News.
Sony dominates the digital distribution of PlayStation games and in-game content. It has deployed an anti-competitive strategy which has resulted in excessive prices to customers that are out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing its services.
Sony PlayStation UK Lawsuit Reasoning
The point of contention in the lawsuit seems to be that PlayStation has monopolized the sale of digital games and so it should not use that power to force higher prices upon customers. The commission fee isn’t exclusive to Sony, most, if not all, digital game stores have some commissions for every digital item.
It is not certain if the court will rule against Sony and agree that the company does indeed have a monopoly on digital games. If so, this might have wide-ranging consequences that will affect other storefronts as well, including Steam.
The plaintiffs state that gaming is the largest entertainment industry within the UK and Sony is overcharging its customers and making them unable to afford games. Alex Neill, a consumer’s rights advocate said: “We’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis and the consumer purse is being squeezed like never before”. This PlayStation UK lawsuit could swing both ways, as games and entertainment are not necessary in times of a living crisis.
The Precedent
In the past, similar lawsuits have taken place. Most notably, Epic Games filed against Apple when Apple took a cut from every sale made within the Epic store on iOS devices. When Fortnite tried to introduce its own monetization method that was circumventing the Apple store tax, Apple removed the game from its store. At that time the courts ruled against Apple, stating that Apple can not force all microtransactions to go through the App Store.
As said previously, this lawsuit could easily swing both ways and we will have to wait and see how Sony Playstation UK fares. Sony is currently trying to meet demands for PS5s and dabbling in NFTs.