Sony games seemed too expensive – Hi-Tech – Kommersant

Well-known British consumer rights advocate Alex Neal has filed a class action lawsuit against Sony. The company is accused of unfair use of its dominant position in the market and overpricing of games for the PlayStation. If the lawsuit is accepted and satisfied, every Briton who has bought games for his console at least once will receive monetary compensation from Sony.

The former head of the British branch of the consumer rights organization Which, Alex Neil, decided to stand up for the 8.9 million British citizens who love to play the Sony PlayStation.

According to Financial TimesNeil filed a class action lawsuit in the Competition Court of Appeals (CAT), accusing the company of abusing its dominant market position to impose unfair treatment on developers and publishers of PlayStation games. This, according to Mr. Neal, resulted in an increase in prices for games and in-game content in the PlayStation online store. Now the human rights activist intends to obtain compensation from the company for all Sony customers who have purchased its digital content at least once after August 18, 2016.

Anyone who meets these criteria is entitled to compensation from Sony, the statement of claim says. It can range from £67 to £562 per person, excluding interest.

In such a case, the total amount Sony would have to pay out to its customers would range from £0.6bn to £5bn, excluding interest.

The court gained the right to consider class action lawsuits on behalf of consumers and companies on violation of antitrust laws in 2015. However, for a long time CAT rejected most of these claims, believing that the plaintiffs did not provide enough grounds to initiate legal proceedings. The turning point in this trend occurred at the end of 2020, when the Supreme Court considered acceptable a class-action lawsuit from residents of the country against MasterCard for up to £ 14 billion, supporting the original decision of CAT. After that, the number of lawyers and sponsors of litigation in the UK, who want to receive their share of compensation payments from companies, has grown significantly, writes the Financial Times.

Mr. Neil argues that the 30 percent commission charged by Sony to developers and publishers is unfair.

The essence of Alex Neil’s claims to Sony is similar to those of Epic Games presented Apple in litigation started in 2020. The California District Court did not recognize the fees as excessive, and Apple as a monopolist in the market, but at the same time ordered the company to give developers the right to accept payments not only through the App Store payment system. As a result, Apple accepted decision to reduce the commission for some developers. Their fees, already under pressure from the public and developers, also reduced Google and Microsoft.

Kirill Sarkhanyants