To scam your users. This is what Sony PlaySation is accused of in the United Kingdom, in a lawsuit filed this week and in which the Japanese company is asked for a compensation of 5,000 million pounds that compensate video game players and developers.
The lawsuit, which has been filed by Solve Group (a well-known consumer protection organization led by Alex Neill) claims that Sony would have violated the competition laws that govern in Great Britain with PlayStation, by imposing “unfair conditions on game developers and publishers”, by “raising prices » artificially.
Presented before the Court of Appeal of Competition, the complaint ensures that the company abused its position as market leader for years to impose conditions on developers and publishers, including a 30% commission on each digital game or purchase made through from the PlayStation Store.
In this sense, Resolver Group alleges that Sony’s policy has caused users to have been paying more for their games for at least, the last six years. Similarly, the organization estimates that individually, each PlayStation user would have paid between 67 and 562 pounds more to be able to have fun with the Sony console.
In statements to the media, Alex Neill has assured that the case he is presenting is solid and that “Sony’s policy is costing people who cannot afford it millions, especially at a time like the present when the cost of living”.
Similar lawsuits have been filed against companies like Apple or Google in the past, but this is the first time they have specifically targeted a video game console. In any case, it will still be years before there is an unappealable sentence and it remains to be seen how the players will be compensated if the judge eventually rules in favor of the plaintiffs.
