Valve, the studio that was once known for making world-class games like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, but is lately simply known as the people behind Steam and hardware like the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machine, is facing a similar ire to what Apple faced in its legal bout with Epic. The London Competition Appeal Tribunal has declared that Valve must face a massive £656 million class-action lawsuit, arguing that the company takes an "excessive" 30% revenue cut of every transaction made on Steam.
Spotted by GamesIndustry.Biz (via Reuters), this lawsuit initially began with Vicki Shotbolt, chief executive officer of Parent Zone, filing the suit in 2024. At the time, Shotbolt said, "Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers," and that she filed the claim in an attempt "to stop this unlawful conduct and have people get back what they are owed."
The suit represents some 14 million UK gamers, as it claims that the 30% commission Valve takes on every purchase is "Imposing excessive commission charges which amount to an unfair price which is then passed on to consumers." It also claims that Valve utilizes "anti-steering provisions," which amount to tactics used by Valve to keep customers on Steam, exemplified by the fact that when you purchase a game on Steam, you must also purchase any DLC or add-on content on Steam to use said content.
If some of this, namely the claim that Valve's 30% cut is "excessive," feels familiar to you, that's because back in 2021, Wolfire Studios and Dark Catt Studios filed a similar case against Valve. Wolfire was the first to file its suit back in April 2021, which also pinned the same claim against Sony with regard to the PlayStation Store. Dark Catt Studios filed its suit months later in June 2021, with Wolfire's suit ultimately being dismissed, and only some of the claims made by Dark Catt Studios getting tossed out.
While Dark Catt's suit continued, Wolfire reorganized its arguments and re-filed its suit against Valve. Due to the cases being so similar, they were combined in July 2022, and then in November 2024, the combined suit was given class-action status.
Suits like this always take a while to reach a conclusion, so don't hold your breath on this making an impact on the video game industry anytime soon. That said, the potential ramifications of Valve losing a suit like this are monumental and cannot be understated. A Valve loss might even mean that company head Gabe Newell needs to cut back on his super yacht budget.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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