The European Commission started investigating five companies distributing their games online through Steam. The companies are suspected of violating the EU's single market rules, charging customers in different countries varied prices for the same games.
According to PC World, the companies under investigation include Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax. The companies are suspected of restricting the use of Steam activation keys in such a way that buyers are unable to use the keys in some parts of the EU to play their video games.
What this means is that the publishers are able to sell activation keys at higher rates in some countries while preventing the players from activating the game with cheaper keys bought in other EU countries. As such, it could restrict parallel trade within the EU and ultimately breach competition rules.
In a press release by the European Commission, Commissioner Margethe Vestager said that they are currently looking into the companies if they are breaking the rules by unfairly restricting retail prices. The investigation opened by the Commission is aimed to tackle the problems, and its preliminary results indicate that the restrictions are used in a large scale basis throughout the EU.
The Commission began investigating on its own initiative, which means that the activities made by the companies in question were not the subject of consumer complaints. Additionally, two other investigations were opened recently, which tackles domestic appliances and online hotel bookings.
The companies included in the hi-fi equipment investigation are Asus, Denon & Marantz, Philips, and Pioneer. They are suspected of restricting online retailers from setting their own prices for some of the products they manufactured.
Meanwhile, Melia Hotels is being investigated for preventing consumers from booking hotel accommodation at better conditions offered by tour operators in EU. The hotel is allegedly working with tour operators Kuoni, REWE, Thomas Cook and TUI to offer different room prices depending on nationality.
Here is the latest video made by the official Valve channel in YouTube: