Antitrust lawsuit against Valve over Steam's 30% commission gains class-action status

Valve could end up paying a lot of people a lot of money

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What just happened? Valve will soon have a new headache to deal with in the form of a long-running lawsuit that has just been classified as a class action. Wolfire Games' suit, which accuses Valve of engaging in anti-competitive practices, will now move from just two developers fighting the gaming giant to any devs, publishers, or individuals that sold games on Steam since 2017.

Wolfire Games originally filed its antitrust lawsuit against Valve in April 2021. It claimed that the company uses Steam's position as undisputed market leader to take a large cut of sales: Valve takes 30% of all item sales up to $10 million, after which point the cut falls to 25% for sales up to $50 million, then 20% for all sales above that figure.

It was also claimed that Valve's cut keeps game prices artificially high on Steam, and that Valve pressures developers not to sell their games cheaper on other stores that take smaller commissions.

The original suit was dismissed without prejudice in November 2021 as the complaint did "not articulate sufficient facts to plausibly allege an antitrust injury based on that market." Wolfire was given 30 days to file another complaint to address the issues, which it did. The suit was combined with another antitrust lawsuit against Valve filed by Dark Catt, a multimedia production and VR game developer.

Gabe won't be happy

According to court documents seen by GamesIndustry.biz, United States District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead has now granted the companies' motion for class certification. Both Wolfire Studios and Dark Catt will be the class representatives for the action.

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The judge also denied Valve's request to exclude the testimony of an expert, economist Dr. Steven Schwartz, whom the two studios called to argue their case.

The class is certified as all persons or entities who, directly or through an agent, paid a commission to Valve in connection with the sale or use of a game on the Steam platform on or after January 28, 2017. The person or entity must have been based in the US and the game purchased or acquired by a United States-based consumer during the Class Period.

If the case does succeed, Valve would likely be on the hook for a lot of money – compensating multiple parties instead of just two is a lot costlier. It could also lead to a rethink of its policies and commission rates.