European Commission investigating Valve and game publishers over Steam geo-blocking
The European Commission has opened an investigation into geo-blocking on Steam. According to the Commission, Valve may be in violation if a game is playable in one European country, while it is not possible in another country.
The Commission is targeting agreements between Valve and game publishers Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax. Because of those similarities, some games would be playable in one European country and not in another. Valve restricts the operation of some product keys to countries.
The European Commission wants to find out whether the agreements between Valve and the publishers include the use of the system of ‘activation keys’ to enable geo-blocking. If so, the Commission sees grounds for indictment.
There has been no complaint against Steam and the Commission says it is acting on its own initiative. If the European Commission concludes that Valve is violating European guidelines, the Steam maker could be fined.