Sony Interactive Entertainment faces a lawsuit worth USD 7.9 billion

Summary:

• Sony faced a USD 7.9 billion lawsuit by a Consumer Advocate in the United Kingdom.
• The lawsuit arrives when there is a raging debate over the commission to developers charged by big corporations.
• Sony tried to have the case thrown out, but London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has allowed it to move forward.

Sony recently released the PlayStation 5 Slim along with several peripherals that make gameplay more accessible for disabled people and the PlayStation Portal that allows Remote Play on the same Wi-Fi.

Consumer Advocate Alex Neill has brought a case against Sony Interactive Entertainment, valued at USD 7.9 billion, regarding the abuse of Sony’s dominant position in the market to charge their customers unfairly. The case has been allowed to continue as per London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, and things could now get serious for Sony.

The case primarily concerns Sony’s underpayment of publishers and distributors by abusing their dominant position in the market. This results in marked-up prices that the end user has to pay.

In Alex Neill’s court filings last month, she mentioned that Sony’s main exploit of its dominant position came from charging a hefty 30% commission from the developers and publishers. In the end, this amount is added to the final price of the product that the user has to pay.

As a result, the case was filed last year on behalf of nearly 9 million people in the United Kingdom who bought digital games or add-on content through the Sony PlayStation store.

Sony’s lawyers have defended their position when the case was filed. They called the case “flawed from start to finish” and “should be thrown out.”

Consequently, yesterday, London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that the case can continue. However, people who purchased from the PlayStation Store after the initial filing of the claim in 2022 should be removed from the proposed claimant class.

About Sony

Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. The company operates as one of the most comprehensive media companies on the planet and also holds the distinctions of being the largest video game console company and the second largest video game publisher in the world.

Its gaming and network services arm Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) is best known for producing the popular line of PlayStation consoles.