According to a recent Insider Gaming report, Valve is facing a class action lawsuit in the United Kingdom. The lawsuit was first filed in 2024 by Vicki Shotbolt and is seeking approximately $900 million, or about £656 million, in damages. The suit was filed on behalf of 14 million users, including minors. It alleges that Valve charges “excessive commission charges” that are “an unfair price which is then passed on to consumers.” In response, Valve argues that the lawsuit cannot provide proper claims against its commissions because it does not consider Steam Keys.
“Without a credible plan for taking Steam Keys into account, the PCR cannot establish Steam’s actual effective commission charge, and without this, the PCR cannot establish whether the commission charge amounts to an unfair price,” wrote Valve. The company also claimed that the suing group “failed to show a plan to determine which Steam Partners actually paid these allegedly unfair prices.” Despite Valve’s arguments, the London Competition Appeal Tribunal has reportedly ruled that the case must move forward.
Back in November, Valve Software Engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, revealed on the Friends Per Second Podcast that Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine console will be priced similarly to a PC with the “same level of performance,” and not like other consoles or the Steam Deck. When asked about the price, Griffais said, “It’s more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market.
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