[GameSpot] - Valve, Five Other Publishers Fined For Geo-Blocking Steam Keys

[343iBot]

The European Commission has ordered six game publishers--including Steam creator Valve--to pay the equivalent of more than $9.4 million for their role in "geo-blocking" game digital game access between territories.

In addition to Valve, the publishers fined for their role in the practice are Focus Home Interactive, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Koch Media, and ZeniMax. Koch Media owns Deep Silver, while ZeniMax owns Bethesda--and will soon be owned by Microsoft.

"Valve and the publishers restricted cross-border sales of certain PC video games on the basis of the geographical location of users within the European Economic Area ('EEA'), entering into the so-called 'geo-blocking' practices," the report said. "The fines for the publishers, totaling over €6 million, were reduced due to the companies' cooperation with the Commission. Valve chose not to cooperate with the Commission and was fined over €1.6 million.

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