Sony Seems Set To Face A Lawsuit In The UK Over The PlayStation Store
Credit: Playstation Store
Sony is about to face serious legal trouble in the United Kingdom because of allegedly overpricing its products. The company is being accused of charging 30% of every digital media available for purchase on the Playstation Store, which may result in compensation for several millions of people in the U.K who have used the service since 2016. Although it currently looks like an attempt to pry open more rights for the consumers of such products, this may lead to financial gains for the people who bought from Sony as well.
The person behind these accusations is Alex Neill, who is representing a collective against Sony and is known as a “consumer champion”. As published by the collective’s website, perfectly named “PlayStation you owe us”, Neill has “20 years’ worth of experience leading consumer campaigns and achieving change for UK consumers”. According to Sky News and Ms. Neill herself, Sony profited almost £5bn over this period for such practices, and consumers who are part of the collective action may get between £67 and £562 if an agreement is met at any point. Although the practice of getting 30% of each sale is common in the video game/digital media industry (Microsoft, Steam, and also Apple’s app store do it as well) says Eurogamer, the collective has a different position. According to the collective,
We believe that PlayStation occupies a dominant position in relation to the digital distribution of PlayStation games and in-game content and that it has been unfairly charging its UK customers too much for digital games and in-game content purchased through the PlayStation Store (…) These prices are out of all proportion to the costs of Sony providing these services to its customers
The argument against Sony is also supported by an interesting comment. Besides the already-existing British consumer rights, Ms. Neill argues that the rising living costs in the U.K. help her case against Sony’s overpricing policies over these years. For now, the action is an “opt-out claim”, meaning there is nothing else besides being part of it. The costs behind legal fees are - at least throughout this stage of the lawsuit - being covered by Woodsford, “a specialist team of litigation and arbitration experts investing in large commercial claims” per Sky News.
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Source(s): Eurogamer, Playstation you owe us, Skynews