The GC On Geo-Blocking On The Activation Keys For Steam Platforms

On 27 September 2023, the EU General Court (GC) issued its judgment in case T-172/2021 (Valve Corporation v European Commission), ruling that Valve, the owner of the online PC video games platform "Steam" and five PC video game publishers had violated Article 101 TFEU. The infringement consisted of the imposition of geo-blocking on the activation keys for the Steam platform. By confirming the Commission's decision of 20 January 2021, the GC found that the undertakings had implemented an agreement or concerted practice having as its object the restriction of parallel imports in the market for online PC video games. According to the GC, instead of using copyright protection to justify geo-blocking, they had implemented a territorial control strategy aimed at preventing the cross-border sale of video games, while safeguarding the royalty sums collected by the publishers, along with Valve's profit margins.