France: Issued Competition Authority ruling imposing a EUR 13.5 million fine on Sony for abuse of dominant position in the market for the supply of video game controllers for PS4

On 20 December 2023, the Competition Authority of France issued its ruling imposing a fine of EUR 13.5 million on Sony for abusing its dominant position in the market for PlayStation 4 (PS4) video game controllers. The Competition Authority opened an investigation after it received a complaint from Subsonic, a French manufacturer of video game controllers. The Competition Authority determined that Sony engaged in 2 anti-competitive practices. Firstly, Sony implemented technical countermeasures in November 2015 with the aim of combating counterfeiting, which disrupted the functioning of third-party controllers during console system updates. Secondly, Sony maintained an “opaque licensing policy” that prevented competing companies from joining the “OLP” partnership program, which was the only avenue to obtain an official license and unique identification numbers. The Competition Authority stated that these practices damaged the brand image of third-party manufacturers and negatively impacted their market expansion.