U.S. District Judge rules Valve must face antitrust litigation
The most notable competitor to Steam, the Epic Games Store, has notoriously lost quite a bit of money for Epic while they're securing their place in the market. It was reported in August 2021, based on court documents made public during their lawsuit with Apple, that Epic has sunk nearly $500 million into the EGS and does not expect to turn a profit until 2027.
Valve filed for the suit to be dismissed in July, claiming that the policy is only in place to protect Steam users and that "seeking the best price for your customers is not harm to competition; it is competition."
The suit was dismissed without prejudice in November 2021, but Wolfire was given 30 days to issue another complaint addressing the dismissal and providing additional context. They have, and now parts of the lawsuit have been dismissed with prejudice, while other motions will go ahead. Wolfire has claimed that they were told by a Steam account manager that Valve would delist any games from Steam that were being sold for a lower price elsewhere, whether or not it was a Steam key. Noting that Valve's policies affect the way even “non-Steam-enabled games are sold and priced,” Judge Coughenour concluded "these allegations are sufficient to plausibly allege unlawful conduct."
Judge Coughenour was initially dismissive of the criticism towards the 30% fee as that has always been Valve's policy, even when they were not a dominant force in the market. With their latest appeal, however, Wolfire pointed out that Valve acquired the World Opponents Network in 2001 and shut it down in 2004 as Steam gained popularity, forcing users to migrate to Steam, making it "a must-have platform." Judge Coughenour also claims that Steam's lack of market share versus brick-and-mortar stores at this time is irrelevant, as it "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."
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