Valve faces lawsuit over developer commissions on Steam
Developer and digital distribution company Valve is facing a lawsuit over claims it allegedly charges publishers excessive commissions to sell their games on Steam. The figure of the damages, which is provisionally estimated, is proposed to be up to 656 million pounds ($897.7 million).
The news was shared via Reuters yesterday, after a tribunal in Britain ruled the case could continue. According to the press release, Valve was sued in June 2024 "on behalf of up to 14 million people" in the United Kingdom who "bought games or additional content through Steam or other platforms since 2018."
Vicki Shotbolt, a children's welfare advocate, is the person in charge of bringing the case. Shotbolt's lawyers alleged that Valve is preventing publishers from selling products more cheaply or earlier on rival platforms to Steam by imposing conditions on them. For example, the allegations claim the company requires users to buy all additional content through Steam if they've bought the game through the platform, "locking in" users to make purchases on its platform.
Shotbolt's lawyers said at a hearing in October that this allows Valve to charge "unfair and excessive" commissions of up to 30 percent—a figure that has been public knowledge between game developers for years.
According to the press release, Valve argued the case should not be certified to proceed towards a trial, an early step in the proceedings. Yet, London's Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled the case could continue. As of yet, no date has been set for the trial.
In 2021, Overgrowth developer Wolfire Games filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve, claiming the "extraordinarily high cut" of revenue Valve takes from Steam developers gave the company an "unassailable" monopoly on PC game distribution.
At the time, Wolfire added that Valve uses its market dominance to extract high fees from developers, and pointed out Steam's once-standard 30 percent store fees, claiming the company has "illegally monopolized the market for PC game distribution."
Valve eventually filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and said its 30 percent sales cut accurately represents the services it provides developers. Then, in late 2021, the lawsuit was dismissed. District Judge John C. Coughenour said Wolfire failed to prove that Valve's fees are "supracompetitive."
This lawsuit was then refiled in 2022, and was eventually combined with a similar antitrust lawsuit filed by Dark Catt Studios. Then, in November 2024, as reported by GamesIndustry.Biz, the studios were granted class action status, transforming the antitrust lawsuit into a potentially much larger dispute. As such, the class action applies to any developers, publishers or individuals who paid a commission to Valve in connection to a game sale on or after January 28, 2017.
