The lawsuit – filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London – alleges Valve “forces” game publishers to sign up to conditions which prevents them from selling their titles earlier or for less on rival platforms.<\/p>\n
It claims that as Valve requires users to buy all additional content through Steam, if they’ve bought the initial game through the platform it is essentially “locking in” users to continue making purchases there.<\/p>\n
This, Ms Shotbolt argues, has enabled Steam to charge an “excessive commission of up to 30%”, making UK consumers pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content.<\/p>\n
The case is what is known as a collective action claim, which means that one person goes to court on behalf of a much larger group of people.<\/p>\n
In this instance, it has been brought on behalf of up to 14 million people in the United Kingdom who bought games or additional content through Steam or other platforms since 2018.<\/p>\n
The claim is backed by legal firm Milberg London LLP, which brings group action cases against large companies.<\/p>\n
A separate consumer action case, filed in August 2024, has been brought against Valve in the US.<\/p>\n
Starting out as a developer of award-winning titles such as Half-Life, Valve launched Steam in 2003, which has grown to become the world’s largest distribution platform for PC gaming.<\/p>\n