Sony Faces New European Lawsuits Over Their PlayStation Store Monopoly, Two Years After The UK Lawsuit

Last November 2023, we reported on a Sony lawsuit in the UK filed in front of the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal over the PlayStation Store. Today, Sony faces another lawsuit just like this, also in Europe.

The news was originally shared on ResetEra by user VibrantStorm, but we can share an official English language statement. Dutch business law firm Stichting Massaschade & Consument, or Stek for short, made this announcement on their website:

“Today, Stichting Massaschade & Consument has officially launched a campaign for its collective action against Sony on behalf of Dutch PlayStation users. The case addresses Sony’s abuse of its dominant market position, which has led to inflated prices for digital PlayStation games and in-game content.

For years, Sony has restricted the sale of digital PlayStation games exclusively to its own PlayStation Store, preventing competition and driving up prices. As a result, more than a million consumers in the Netherlands have overpaid for digital games – sometimes as much as 47% more compared to physical copies of the same titles.

Stek, Geradin Partners, and Milberg Amsterdam are proud to jointly represent Stichting Massaschade & Consument in this case. Sony has been invited to engage in discussions. If that does not lead to the desired result, Sony will be pursued in court under the WAMCA regime. The lawsuit seeks compensation for affected consumers and aims to bring more competition and fairer pricing to the PlayStation digital ecosystem.

The case follows similar legal actions in Portugal and the United Kingdom, where courts are also reviewing Sony’s restrictive business practices. If successful, this lawsuit could force Sony to open up the PlayStation Store to competition, ensuring fairer pricing and better consumer protection.”

As Stek alludes to, a similar case was filed in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal by one Alex Neill, representing 8.9 million UK Playstation users. In all these cases, what these countries found objectionable was that Sony closed off their PlayStation Store in such a way that consumers could no longer buy PlayStation game codes outside of PlayStation, from third party vendors and retailers.

Sony decided to lock down game codes to their PlayStation Store back in 2019, before the PlayStation 5 even launched. In their words,

“This decision was made in order to continue to align key businesses globally.”

Sony already faced a similar lawsuit in San Francisco court and agreed to settle. Microsoft and Nintendo remain open to having third parties sell game codes, gift cards, and store credits for their respective game stores to third parties. So it seems Sony is content to face any potential legal action as it happens, instead of reversing course. PlayStation gamers will definitely want to keep this in mind the next time they look at the PlayStation Store and notice how their prices are different to every other video game storefront out there.