European Union: Announced investigation into Valve and five video games publishers regarding anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices to restrict cross-border sales

On 2 February 2017, the European Commission announced its investigation into Valve and five video games publishers regarding anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices. The Commission is examining bilateral agreements that were made between Valve Corporation, the operator of the Steam game distribution platform, and five PC video game publishers, namely Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax. This investigation focuses on the practice of geo-blocking, in which companies restrict consumers from buying digital content, specifically PC video games, based on the consumer's geographic location or country of residence.