Sony is accused of abusing its market position in the UK and causing the price of the game to rise, and the plaintiff claims 5 billion pounds
CTOnews.com8, July 29, this year, Sony announced its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, which showed that Sony sold 2.4 million PS5 units worldwide in that quarter, an increase of 100000 units from 2.3 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year. At the same time, total PS5 sales reached 21.7 million.
The huge sales have not only brought more revenue to Sony, but also brought a lot of questions. Consumer rights advocate Alex Neill has launched a class action lawsuit against Sony, accusing Sony of abusing market power and imposing unfair terms on game developers and publishers, leading to higher game prices, Sky News reported today. This is suspected of violating competition law.
The lawsuit highlights that Sony charges a 30 per cent commission on every digital game and in-game items that users buy from the PlayStation store, forcing consumers to buy games at higher prices. At the same time, the lawsuit points out that consumers who have bought games or DLC through the PlayStation digital store in the UK since August 19, 2016 are entitled to compensation of £67,562per person, totaling £5 billion (RMB 40.35 billion).
Neil said that millions of Britons were unwittingly overcharged by Sony, so she thought Sony had abused its market position and defrauded users. Neil said: "Games are now the largest entertainment industry in the UK, surpassing television, video and music, and many vulnerable groups rely on games to build communities and connections. Sony's actions have cost millions of people extra."
"Sony dominates the digital distribution of PlayStation games and game content," said Natasha Pearman, a partner in the lawsuit. "it uses an anti-competitive strategy, resulting in charging customers too much to exceed the cost of services provided by Sony."
CTOnews.com learned that Sony reported revenue of 2.3115 trillion yen (about 117.1 billion yuan) and profit of 307 billion yen (15.35 billion yuan) in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, up 9.6 percent from a year earlier.
