About a year ago, the Dutch non-profit consumer foundation Stichting Massaschade & Consument filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands against Sony over its supposed monopolistic practices in selling digital games on the PlayStation Store.
This morning, the foundation issued a press release announcing that the first hearing in this class action lawsuit will take place at the Dutch District Court of Midden-Nederland on Monday, June 29. Following the hearing, the court will take a few months to rule on whether the foundation's case is admissible. It will then examine the merits of the foundation's claims. If the court finds in favor of these claims, Sony will be obligated to allow other providers into the digital PlayStation market and to compensate roughly 1.7 million Dutch players for the 'Sony tax' they have unjustly paid, which the foundation estimates to be more than €400 million.
According to Stichting Massaschade & Consument, over 80 percent of Dutch households with a games console have a PlayStation. On every sale in the PlayStation Store, Sony famously takes a 30 percent commission, which developers pass on in their prices. Because no rival shop can undercut those prices, the foundation alleges that players pay on average 47 percent more for a digital game than for the same title on disc.
Lucia Melcherts, chair of Stichting Massaschade & Consument, said in a statement:
Sony winning the competitive battle in the console market is not something we object to in itself. What matters is that Sony uses that dominance to shut out every other seller. A digital PlayStation game can't be bought anywhere except the PlayStation Store, so there is simply no external pressure on the price. Once you're locked into Sony's digital ecosystem, you're at the mercy of whatever price and terms Sony sets, now and in the future.
This is far from the only class action lawsuit filed for the very same reason. There have been other examples in the United States, specifically in California, where Sony secured a preliminary settlement for just $7.8 million a few months ago, and in the United Kingdom, where the £1.97 billion 'PlayStation You Owe Us' lawsuit began in March and ended in May. Now, the parties wait for the judgment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which could take months.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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