Sony is in trouble with the UK government now, after the Competition Appeal Tribunal decided to move forward with a £ 5 billion class action lawsuit.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Alex Neill’s lawsuit vs Sony, filed on behalf of 8.9 million PlayStation customers in the UK, is moving forward. This update comes after the Tribunal decided against Sony’s attempt to quash the suit, claiming that the argument was flawed.
Neill’s suit alleges that Sony’s monopoly over the sale of digital games and DLC for PlayStation consoles harms consumers. Sony’s ability to dictate prices, and 30 % commission they make from every sale on PlayStation Store “results in excessive and unfair prices to consumers.” It also alleges that the prices are “out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing these services to its customers”.
The suit will represent anyone who bought games or DLC in the UK PlayStation store between August 19, 2016 to August 19, 2022, unless said customers opt out. If the suit succeeds, every class member will get something between £ 67 to a staggering £ 562 in damages, with interest.
Now, as we know, this is hardly the first such class action lawsuit in the video game industry. Sony itself faced down a similar lawsuit, this time in regards to OtherOS. Sony once offered a feature on PlayStation 3, where users could choose to install Linux or other operating systems on their console. When they removed that feature, some of those PlayStation 3 users sued.
Sony did not lose in court over OtherOS, but they essentially lost in this situation. They agreed to settle that suit, and offered $ 55 to all customers who could show they had a PlayStation 3 that could install OtherOS, regardless if they used the feature or not.
If that case did end in court, Sony may have been forced to make even worse concessions, like having to design future consoles in such a way that consumers would be able to install any operating system they wanted without breaking warranty.
This lawsuit has the same potential implications. The class action may seek that Sony be forced to change the terms between themselves and third party developers. It could also require Sony to allow other companies to get to sell digital games and DLC on PlayStation; meaning they would not have to go through Sony to do so.
That does probably mean that Sony could opt to settle this case if they decide they’re more likely to lose as well.
