A group of players had filed a complaint against sony some time ago for unfair competition in a federal class action. The plaintiffs accused the Japanese firm of exerting a monopoly control on game downloads. The federal judge chose to dismiss the players’ complaint.
PlayStation Store and the download monopoly
It’s been an endless debate since the invention of digital copying and the birth of online video game sales platforms. Do platform owners — like Valve with Steam, or in this case Sony with the PlayStation Store — have the right to limit the sale of digital copies to their platforms alone, or is this unfair competition?
US Federal Judge Richard Seeborg decided not to pursue the procedure launched by a group of consumers who invoked the “Sherman Anti-Trust Act”.
the Sherman Actit is a law that prohibits “any contract, association or collusion with a view to restraining trade” and any “monopoly, attempted monopoly, association or collusion with a view to monopoly”.
Not enough factual details
To bolster their case, the plaintiffs set out the following theory: Sony intentionally forfeited short-term revenue when it stopped allowing other resellers to sell its games digitally in order to become the sole game supplier. on its online store, and thus gain a monopoly without possible negotiations.
Indeed, players could buy download codes for digital PlayStation games in a number of locations, such as Amazon for example. Then, in 2019, Sony decided to cut out the middleman and establish itself as the only marketplace where video game publishers could sell digital copies of PlayStation games.
Unfortunately, it would appear that the consumer group was unable to prove that Sony’s decision to sell only on the PlayStation Store was primarily intended to cut off competition, rather than being a sound business decision, thus hampering advocacy. of anti-competitive behavior and thus the Sherman Act process.
“Motion to Dismiss Granted Because Plaintiffs Failed to Adequately Allege Anti-Competitive Conduct Under the Sherman Act […]. Although it is currently unclear whether the deficiencies can be filled, the applicant is permitted to amend.” writes Judge Seeborg.
This means that the player group can, if they wish, supplement their complaint by fleshing out their arguments with evidence and file a complaint again.
Case to follow.
playstation
Sony is well and truly in the sauce following a complaint stipulating that the company would be aware of certain defects in its next-gen console, and would however continue to sell it. Truth or fake news? It’s up to the courts to decide!