Following Apple’s recent class action lawsuit, it’s now Sony’s turn as it’s taken to court over alleged unfair pricing on the PlayStation Store.
Back in 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed against Sony alleging that the company had, since 2016, been overcharging customers on digital video games through its PlayStation Store in the UK.
It made headlines at the time since the goal of the lawsuit was to claim financial compensation for affected PlayStation customers, meaning Sony would have to refund millions of people.
Such legal action has rarely worked against major companies, but the suit hasn’t quietly fizzled out. In fact, starting today, it’s finally gone to trial and if it’s successful, it will see Sony fork over £2 billion to its customers.
The lawsuit is being spearheaded by ‘consumer champion’ Alex Neill and solicitors Milberg London LLP. According to their campaign website, they accuse Sony of breaching competition law, arguing Sony has a monopoly on digital games sales.
‘These terms allow Sony to set the price of digital games and in-game content and charge a 30% commission on every purchase of digital games and in-game content from the PlayStation Store,’ it reads.
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This is true, but the 30% commission is also an industry standard. Both Steam and Xbox do the same thing, which will likely be a key part of Sony’s argument during the trial.
The website continues, ‘This results in excessive and unfair prices to consumers for their digital games and in-game content. These prices are out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing these services to its customers.’
Should things go in Neill and her team’s favour, then Sony is estimated to pay £2 billion worth of damages (before interest), with each affected PlayStation customer to earn £122 excluding interest and £162 including interest.
This could include you if you are a permanent UK resident who’s bought any digital games or DLC from the PlayStation Store between August 19, 2016 and February 12, 2026.
While the trial is starting today, it’s estimated to last for 10 weeks so there may not be a resolution until May. If you’re at all interested, you can watch it live through the Competition Appeal Tribunal website.
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It’s too soon to tell if the suit will be at all successful, but a similar situation with Apple did take place in October. There, the Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that the company had abused its dominant market position and charged ‘excessive and unfair’ commissions that it passed onto consumers.
As such, millions of affected Apple customers could be owed upwards of £75 each, although naturally Apple has appealed the ruling and Sony will likely do the same thing in the event it loses.
It’s unclear if the PlayStation lawsuit will make mention of Sony’s recent dynamic pricing experiments, with PlayStation owners discovering that the prices of digital games on the PlayStation Store fluctuates from person to person.
So, depending on factors like your purchase history and location, some games could be sold to you at a lower price compared to other people; something that many have criticised as being unfair.
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