European Union: Issued General Court ruling regarding anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices to restrict cross-border sales (Valve v Commission)

On 27 September 2023, the General Court of the European Union issued a ruling regarding anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices to restrict cross-border sales (Valve v Commission). The court confirmed that Valve and five PC video game publishers, namely Bandai, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax, violated EU competition law by engaging in geo-blocking practices. Geo-blocking involved restricting cross-border sales of specific PC video games compatible with Valve's Steam platform based on users' geographical locations. In January 2021, the Commission concluded that Valve and the publishers had engaged in anti-competitive agreements to limit cross-border sales between 2010 and 2015, particularly in the Baltic countries and parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Specifically, the General Court did not accept Valve’s argument that geo-blocking was intended to protect the copyright of the publishers, noting that copyright did not extend to protecting the institution of artificial price differences between partitioned national markets.