Valve, 5 publishers face EU fines over 'geo-blocking'

The European Commission imposed fines totaling €7.8 million on Valve Corp. and publishers Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., Capcom Co. Ltd., Focus Home Interactive SA, Koch Media GmbH and ZeniMax Media Inc. for "geo-blocking" practices.

The game companies are said to have violated European Union antitrust rules by restricting cross-border sales of certain PC games based on the user's geographical location within the European Economic Area, according to a Jan. 20 news release.

Specifically, the game publishers granted Valve, which owns game distribution service Steam, a nonexclusive license to exploit specified games. In exchange, the publishers secured a license from Valve to use Steam activation keys to dispense games outside Valve's game distribution platform.

The publishers also requested Valve to provide geo-blocked Steam activation keys. Around 100 PC games were involved in the geo-blocking, the EC said.

The publishers' fines, which amounted to more than €6 million, were reduced for cooperation with the EC. Meanwhile Valve, which "chose not to cooperate," was fined more than €1.6 million.