Sony PlayStation is being sued for up to £5 billion (€5.9 billion) for overcharging millions of PlayStation customers in alleged breach of competition law. The British business newspaper Financial Times reported on Monday. The lawsuit was filed by consumer law expert Alex Neill at the British Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), which is responsible for antitrust proceedings.
The allegation: Sony PlayStation is said to have abused its market dominance to impose unfair conditions on the developers and publishers of PlayStation games. This, in turn, allegedly led to unfair prices for consumers in the PlayStation Store. According to a preliminary estimate, total losses for the 8.9 million alleged victims could range from £0.6 billion to £5 billion excluding interest, writes the Financial Times.
“Class actions like this are important because they give us the ability to hold big companies accountable on behalf of consumers,” the newspaper quoted Neill, chief executive of the Resolver Group, a consumer technology organization.
According to the lawsuit, anyone in Great Britain who has purchased digital games or additional content on their console or via the PlayStation Store since August 2016 is affected. If the lawsuit is successful, 8.9 million players could hope for compensation. Compensation claims are said to be between £67 and £562 (€79 and €665) excluding interest per person.
Increase in class action lawsuits
The lawsuit against Sony PlayStation is the latest in a series of similar lawsuits. According to the Financial Times, the CAT is currently experiencing a spate of class action lawsuits against major companies such as BT, Apple and Qualcomm. A class action lawsuit filed last year demands billions in compensation for Apple’s controversial App Store rules.
Such antitrust lawsuits on behalf of millions of consumers alleging violations of competition laws are made possible by the Consumer Rights Act of 2015. However, each individual lawsuit must first be confirmed by the CAT as capable of being heard. This confirmation is still pending for the lawsuit against Sony PlayStation.
In recent months, the number of lawsuits filed with the CAT has surged after the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling in late 2020. This allowed former Finance Ombudsman Walter Merricks to file a £10 billion (€11.8 billion) lawsuit on behalf of 46.2 million people against financial services provider Mastercard. In addition, well-funded litigation financiers use their capital and support class action lawsuits in order to receive part of the compensation in return. Most class action lawsuits are filed under the opt-out principle, according to the Financial Times, meaning millions of potentially affected consumers are automatically included in the lawsuit unless they choose not to participate.
(akn)
