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European Commission Fines Valve, Publishers for Regional Pricing and GeoBlocking

14 points by 0-_-0 6y ago

Havoc 6y ago
>Valve didn't receive any fine reduction because the company elected not to cooperate with the Commission. That seems rather odd
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  It looks like they only saved 150k or so by not cooperating. I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of cooperating (just in terms of engineering resources and paying Valve's lawyers) would be greater than that
PoignardAzur 6y ago
> "Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and of the opportunity to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU." Sigh > Of course, while this money will come directly out of pocket from the convicted companies, what this does in practice is that these companies will likely no longer provide videogames at discounted prices for countries with lower purchasing power Yup. Yet again, European lawmakers show that they don't understand the online market. The idea that you can tell a company "You need to allow your consumers of any country to buy as if they were in any other country, so that they can shop around and buy at the lowest price you offer no matter where they are" and still expect that company to offer region-based discounts is so ridiculous I struggle to put words on it. Either the commission had a beef against Valve for some other reason, or the members are dumb old bureaucrats who don't understand that a virtual product doesn't work like a physical product.
- knolax 6y ago
  > what this does in practice is that these companies will likely no longer provide videogames at discounted prices for countries with lower purchasing power Do you have any examples of this? Valve didn't lower the price for low income regions out of the kindness of their heart, they did it because otherwise nobody from those regions would buy the product at all. In cases of price discrimination like this it's the high income consumer that gets screwed over. Without it Valve has no choice but to offer the same low price, doing anything else would just reduce their revenue further.

14 points by 0-_-0 6y ago

>Valve didn't receive any fine reduction because the company elected not to cooperate with the Commission. That seems rather odd

Rebelgecko 6y ago
It looks like they only saved 150k or so by not cooperating. I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of cooperating (just in terms of engineering resources and paying Valve's lawyers) would be greater than that

PoignardAzur 6y ago

> "Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and of the opportunity to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU." Sigh > Of course, while this money will come directly out of pocket from the convicted companies, what this does in practice is that these companies will likely no longer provide videogames at discounted prices for countries with lower purchasing power Yup. Yet again, European lawmakers show that they don't understand the online market. The idea that you can tell a company "You need to allow your consumers of any country to buy as if they were in any other country, so that they can shop around and buy at the lowest price you offer no matter where they are" and still expect that company to offer region-based discounts is so ridiculous I struggle to put words on it. Either the commission had a beef against Valve for some other reason, or the members are dumb old bureaucrats who don't understand that a virtual product doesn't work like a physical product.

knolax 6y ago
> what this does in practice is that these companies will likely no longer provide videogames at discounted prices for countries with lower purchasing power Do you have any examples of this? Valve didn't lower the price for low income regions out of the kindness of their heart, they did it because otherwise nobody from those regions would buy the product at all. In cases of price discrimination like this it's the high income consumer that gets screwed over. Without it Valve has no choice but to offer the same low price, doing anything else would just reduce their revenue further.