Japanese entertainment giant Sony will face a \u00a32 billion ($2.7 billion) class action lawsuit starting Tuesday in London, accused of allegedly breaching competition law by overcharging millions of UK PlayStation users.<\/p>\n
The claimants\u2019 website accuses Sony of \u201cexploiting its UK customers\u201d for nearly a decade by charging them \u201ctoo much for PlayStation digital games and in-game content\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case seeks to bring that conduct to an end and to secure compensation for those affected,\u201d consumer campaigner Alex Neill, who brought the action on behalf of an estimated 12.2 million users, told AFP.<\/p>\n
The PlayStation Store is the official digital platform where gamers can buy Sony classics like \u201cGran Turismo\u201d and \u201cGod of War\u201d, as well as blockbuster titles like \u201cCall of Duty\u201d, \u201cGTA\u201d and \u201cAssassin\u2019s Creed\u201d from other studios.<\/p>\n
\u201cSony has a near monopoly on the sale of digital games\u201d for its console, allowing it to dictate prices and charge a 30 percent sales commission to video game publishers, the claimants allege.<\/p>\n
According to the claimants, PC game distribution platforms \u2014 which face greater competition \u2014 charge a lower commission of around 12 to 20 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cGames are now designed to incentivise players to spend as much money as possible (including children),\u201d the claimants\u2019 website alleges, including for players to \u201cprogress, unlock more features, or customise their experience with new characters or weapons\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sony\u2019s prices \u201care out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing these services to its customers\u201d, they said.<\/p>\n
The trial is due to be heard at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London, and is expected to last around 10 weeks.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit launched in 2022 is seeking \u00a31.97 billion in damages, to be shared by anyone who purchased digital games or add-on content via the PlayStation store in the decade leading to February 2026, with some limited exceptions.<\/p>\n
Under UK law, all potentially affected persons are included in this type of class action by default, and may benefit from possible compensation, unless they voluntarily opt out.<\/p>\n
Sony did not immediately respond to AFP\u2019s request for comment, but in its defence to the claim argued that its distribution model is justified.<\/p>\n
Last year, Apple lost a lawsuit in London for abusing its dominant position and charging excessive commissions on its in-house App Store.<\/p>\n
The US tech giant, which has said it intends to appeal the decision, could be liable to reimburse millions of users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese entertainment giant Sony will face a \u00a32 billion ($2.7 billion) class action lawsuit starting Tuesday in London,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,399,46,100524,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-328151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mna","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}