Valve rekt in court AGAIN - Valve loses fight over geoblocking

[__++__==]

https://www.engadget.com/valve-fails-to-get-out-of-paying-its-eu-geo-blocking-fine-122053595.html

from the article;

"Valve has failed to convince a court that it didn't infringe EU law by geo-blocking activation keys, according to a new ruling. The company argued that, based on copyright law, publishers had the right to charge different prices for games in different countries. However, the EU General Court confirmed that its geo-blocking actions "infringed EU competition law"and that copyright law didn't apply.

"Copyright is intended only to ensure for the right holders concerned protection of the right to exploit commercially the marketing or the making available of the protected subject matter, by the grant of licences in return for payment of remuneration," it wrote in a statement. "However, it does not guarantee them the opportunity to demand the highest possible remuneration or to engage in conduct such as to lead to artificial price differences between the partitioned national markets.""

[Brian9824]

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Nguyên văn bởi SlowMango:

Valve doesn't set the prices.

Hello

True, the editor/publisher are still free to set the price on any eu country they want and now we are free to buy the game from any eu county we want.

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

[LeftIsBest-James]

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Hello

True, the editor/publisher are still free to set the price on any eu country they want and now we are free to buy the game from any eu county we want.

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Leaves the EU.
But apparently can't quit the EU 💘

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Nguyên văn bởi LeftIsBest-James:

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Leaves the EU.
But apparently can't quit the EU 💘

Europe, a bunch of rapidly fading former world powers that are barely a shadow of their old glory

[LeftIsBest-James]

Nguyên văn bởi Malfunctioning Robot:

Europe, a bunch of rapidly fading former world powers that are barely a shadow of their old glory

Britain says What?
- abandoned by America
- shunned by EU
- sold out to India

HS2 failed.
Climate Energy Modernization failed.
Raw Sewage in riverways.

BTW: EU's economy was back to normal last year.

[bidulless]

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Hello

True, the editor/publisher are still free to set the price on any eu country they want and now we are free to buy the game from any eu county we want.

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Hello

Don't you think i will buy 100000keys from slovia , as exemple, to offer just by changing my location ?
First i can't because my payment is linked to my location and steam does not allow that.

And no people from eu can't do that without falling in the law ; this kind of activity is reserved to enterprise and not people.
I can advice you to read again the document someone have linked and try to understand it
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_170
And especially the little picture.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Nguyên văn bởi LeftIsBest-James:

Nguyên văn bởi Malfunctioning Robot:

Europe, a bunch of rapidly fading former world powers that are barely a shadow of their old glory

Britain says What?
- abandoned by America
- shunned by EU
- sold out to India

HS2 failed.
Climate Energy Modernization failed.
Raw Sewage in riverways.

BTW: EU's economy was back to normal last year.

A collection of failed empires with economies STILL weaker that the UK's says what? Tell me how it feels that even your collective economy still trades lower than the pound sterling?

[Brian9824]

Nguyên văn bởi LeftIsBest-James:

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Leaves the EU.
But apparently can't quit the EU 💘

Yep, glad i don't and have never lived there.

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Don't you think i will buy 100000keys from slovia , as exemple, to offer just by changing my location ?
First i can't because my payment is linked to my location .....

Again you don't really seem to know what your talking about, you should really read the articles before commenting. This is not about buying on steam, this is about buying KEYS. You know what steam gives the dev's to sell on other sites? When you buy a game on steam you don't get an activation key

Those sites do not link your payment to your location. Hence what the problem is.

[Komarimaru]

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Hello

Don't you think i will buy 100000keys from slovia , as exemple, to offer just by changing my location ?
First i can't because my payment is linked to my location .....

And no people from eu can't do that without falling in the law ; this kind of activity is reserved to enterprise and not people.
I can advice you to read again the document someone have linked and try to understand it
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_170
And especially the little picture.

I think you need to read it again. You cannot offer a cheaper price anymore, since would be exploited by other member states. Quite clearly there at the bottom.

If I'm a publisher/developer. I'm not going to offer my game cheaper in a country, since anyone in the richer ones could just buy it there.

The whole point of geo blocking was so you couldn't buy it at a discounted rate set for the economy, unless you lived in that country. Why Valve was sued.

These business practices therefore denied European consumers the benefits of the EU's Digital Single Market to shop around between Member States to find the most suitable offer.

Right there. Nothing prevents richer member states from exploiting the poorer ones, so of course publishers/developers are not going to offer it cheaper.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Nguyên văn bởi bidulless:

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Yep, and to counter the abuse of people from richer EU countries shopping from poorer countries with no friction, now all the EU countries are priced the same as the highest country.

Sucks for those consumers in the EU...

Hello

Don't you think i will buy 100000keys from slovia , as exemple, to offer just by changing my location ?
First i can't because my payment is linked to my location and steam does not allow that.

And no people from eu can't do that without falling in the law ; this kind of activity is reserved to enterprise and not people.
I can advice you to read again the document someone have linked and try to understand it
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_170
And especially the little picture.

You really need to read the resources posted.

[Chika Ogiue]

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Well not across the board, only in the poorer regions

Definitely in many "normal" regions too, including AU. Especially by Japanese publishers who are now having to contend with the prolonged depreciation of the yen. So prices are going up from them in many (if not all) countries. The point being, if they don't have to worry about keeping prices low in low-income regions, there's little need to keep them low anywhere else either. Add Abenomics to that and well... Welcome to what what Japan has seen for the last couple of decades.

This ruling has just ensured it happens to a wider number of customers.

[bidulless]

Nguyên văn bởi brian9824:

Those sites do not link your payment to your location. Hence what the problem is.

Hello

Exact it's not buying under steam that what i pointed and as the picture showed, it's from buying from site. But how people can abuse there ? Will they buy 10000keys , surelly not ...

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Nguyên văn bởi William Shakesman:

The EU is a private country. Valve agreed the follow the EU TOS when they started doing business there. Nothing to be done about it, Valve simply needs to read the TOS more closely next time

Except no one is contesting that, only that the court is brain dead for enforcing an anticonsumer ruling

[RiO]

Nguyên văn bởi Malfunctioning Robot:

Nguyên văn bởi William Shakesman:

The EU is a private country. Valve agreed the follow the EU TOS when they started doing business there. Nothing to be done about it, Valve simply needs to read the TOS more closely next time

Except no one is contesting that, only that the court is brain dead for enforcing an anticonsumer ruling

The ruling as such isn't anti-consumer. And neither are the laws or underlying principles.

The unified market principle was exactly meant so that rich countries would buy in poor countries; stimulate their local economy; and thus make those countries not-so-poor anymore over time.

Where it all went south, is that this also applies to products offered locally by global enterprises that actually have zero stake in the local economy. They would rather that this shift of business of everyone buying at the lower price point, doesn't happen. Because it doesn't benefit them.

So, they first attempted to door-slam those from the richer countries from doing so. And when that proved illegal; they just set the price to the same high level everywhere: too bad, so sad for the low-income economies.


Mind you- it would've been perfectly legal if the publishers in question had simply prevented consumers from starting and playing the game while outside of the intended region. This is parallel to refusing to offer service outside the intended region where the company chose to do business. Or refusing to ship physical goods to other countries that are not the intended region of doing business. All perfectly legal according to the legislation that governs the unified market.

It's just not legal to outright prevent activating the purchased key, i.e. adding the purchased product to the platform account.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

Nguyên văn bởi RiO:

Nguyên văn bởi Malfunctioning Robot:

Except no one is contesting that, only that the court is brain dead for enforcing an anticonsumer ruling

The ruling as such isn't anti-consumer. And neither are the laws or underlying principles.

The unified market principle was exactly meant so that rich countries would buy in poor countries; stimulate their local economy; and thus make those countries not-so-poor anymore over time.

Where it all went south, is that this also applies to products offered locally by global enterprises that actually have zero stake in the local economy. They would rather that this shift of business of everyone buying at the lower price point, doesn't happen. Because it doesn't benefit them.

So, they first attempted to door-slam those from the richer countries from doing so. And when that proved illegal; they just set the price to the same high level everywhere: too bad, so sad for the low-income economies.


Mind you- it would've been perfectly legal if the publishers in question had simply prevented consumers from starting and playing the game while outside of the intended region. This is parallel to refusing to offer service outside the intended region where the company chose to do business. Or refusing to ship physical goods to other countries that are not the intended region of doing business. All perfectly legal according to the legislation that governs the unified market.

It's just not legal to outright prevent activating the purchased key, i.e. adding the purchased product to the platform account.

Which is all semantics since the fact is the effect is what is important, not the "intent". It's braindead to pretend otherwise

[The Presence]

So did you actually read the article you linked to, or was this just another poor attempt to smear Valve?