For years, buy digital games on PS4 and PS5 It has been the comfortable option for millions of players, but in the United Kingdom that comfort borders on judicial. You may already remember, but a British court is analyzing whether Sony has taken advantage of its absolute control over the PlayStation Store to charge users fees. commissions which the plaintiffs consider abusive. The case has advanced and there is news about this lawsuit, and the worst of all is that Sony 2,000 million pounds are at stake.

Landmark lawsuit against Sony

According to the BBC, the lawsuit we are talking about has been promoted by consumer advocate Alex Neill since 2022 and is presented as a collective action with automatic inclusion of those affected. This means that any user in United Kingdom who has purchased games or digital content from the PlayStation Store in the last ten years is inside the case automatically, without having to sign up for anything. Plaintiffs’ lawyers estimate that up to 12.2 million people could receive on average 162 pounds each one if the court agrees with them.

The argument is that sony would have transferred to the final prices a commission from up to 30% that developers pay to distribute in the store. The novelty now has been that the Competition Appeal Court has already begun to examine the case and the arguments are on the table. Lawyer Robert Palmer said at the trial that Sony not only charges a high commission, but has also organized everything so that players have no choice.

According to the lawsuit, the conditions that the company imposes on the studios mean that the PlayStation digital games They can only be sold through PS Storeso that users are ‘trapped’ in that ecosystem. To this we must add Sony’s push towards digital, because of the three PS5 modelsonly one has disk readerso more and more people depend solely on the PS Store to buy games and every quarter physical sales decrease.

What remains to be resolved in the coming weeks is whether the court considers that Sony has acted as a monopoly what has actively harmed playersor if their trading conditions are simply the usual rules of digital platforms. In addition, this same court has similar cases open against Valve for its practices on Steam, and the precedent of Apple, which was reproached for its 30% commissions in the App Store.

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