A lawsuit that alleges Valve monopolizes the PC gaming market is gathering pace and will go ahead. U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour – who twice found in favor of Valve during preliminary hearings – is still allowing the lawsuit to happen, albeit an amended version of the filing.
Independent PC game creator Wolfire Games is leading the class action against Valve. The company believes Valve uses its Steam platform to dominate the PC game market with unfair practices. Bloombeg Law reports Judge Coughenour is allowing a part of the lawsuit to go ahead.
Specifically, the allegations made by Wolfire about Steam driving up the price of games because the platform also takes a 30% commission on sales. Furthermore, the claim is that Valve actively retaliates against companies who offer alternative purchase options outside of Steam. Valve will now face both these allegations before the court.
New Decision
Another claim from Wolfire, that Valve should split Steam into a separate game platform and game store, will not be allowed to progress.
This development is interesting because Coughenour previously dismissed the case in preliminary hearings. He said that there was no evidence that Valve was engaging in anti-competition practices. He said previously Steam “did not need market power to charge a fee well above its cost structure because those brick-and-mortar competitors had a far higher cost structure”.
Of course, just because the lawsuit is moving ahead, it does not mean the allegations will hold up. The case will now proceed with legal teams from Wolfire and Valve arguing their site of the case. We will keep you updated as the lawsuit progresses.
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