Accused of unfair competition by a collective of American players and resellers, the Sony affair takes an unexpected turn with the first verdict rendered by the justice.
In recent years, players and resellers have more than widely proven that they were not willing to face the large multinationals. In their viewfinder in particular: Sony, which is regularly accused of competition and other unfair practices by consumers, evidenced for example The legal attack recently launched by the Stichting Massaschade association and consument for players Ps5 in the Netherlands. And it is not alone, since a verdict has just been returned to a case similar to the United States.
Sony accused of unfair competition, American justice makes a first verdict
Indeed, three years after the launch of a collective appeal aimed at preventing Sony from continuing to offer prices “Supra-competitive” disloyal for PS5 games on the PlayStation StoreAmerican judge Avaceli Martínez-Olguín finally returned her first verdict in this case on July 17. And unfortunately for all the parties involved, this will not make a lot of way, since it simply decided to block the amicable regulations of 7.85 million dollars which had been agreed between Sony and the complainants.
She then invokes the fact that this agreement, negotiated in December 2024 and finalized last March, still lacks clarity and does not follow the guidelines established by the Federal Court of the North District of California. Because according to her, he remains in the state “Neither equitable, nor reasonable, nor adequate” In view of the damage invoked by the complainants, knowing that the agreement does not specify either how the said amount will then be redistributed to the some 4.4 million PS5 players concerned in this case.
In fact, the complainants now have 30 days to remedy the gaps raised in their complaint, unless they finally decide to initiate a trial against Sony. In which case, the process will then only be longer and more expensive, something that the Japanese firm is precisely to avoid. Because even if the latter considers that he has nothing to blame himself for in this case, the objective of this agreement was precisely to avoid going through it, at the risk of having to embark on a very expensive long -term battle.
A monopoly of the PS5 which is scary
Launched in 2021 by a collective of players, this appeal follows the announcement by Sony, in April 2019, from the stop of the possibility for shops (Gamesop, Best Buy, etc.) to sell digital game codes for the PlayStation Store. Indeed, resellers believe that this contributes to creating a unfair monopoly for the firm, which can thus offer supra-competitive prices compared to the physical market where prices are higher and where competition is raging. Not to mention that this contributes, according to them, to divert the PS5 players even more.
Source : Reuters
