British court may fine Valve nearly $1 billion for Steam monopoly

The London Court of Appeal has ordered Valve to stand trial on charges of monopolizing the Steam digital store.

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of 14 million UK residents was filed back in 2024, and since then the company has managed to avoid court hearings. But now Valve faces a real fine of almost $900 million.

What is known

The prosecution believes that Gabe Newell's company is using its leading market position to impose unfavorable conditions on both game developers and publishers, as well as consumers. Steam receives a 30% commission on every game sold and every microtransaction, yet does not provide any payment bypass mechanisms.

All 14 million UK gamers believe that because there is no platform comparable in scale and popularity on the market, most developers have no choice but to use Steam over alternative platforms with lower commissions.

For Valve, this is far from the first such lawsuit, and so far, the company's lawyers have managed to avoid significant fines. Let's see how it ends this time.

Source: Reuters