{"id":1605299,"date":"2026-06-12T15:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/W95Jr8WzScMjMvw6vAe2UF"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:34:37","slug":"dutch-non-profit-set-to-take-valve-to-court-for-keeping-game-prices-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/dutch-non-profit-set-to-take-valve-to-court-for-keeping-game-prices-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch non-profit set to take Valve to court for keeping game prices high"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you were to make a list of every concept you associate with Steam\u2014even if you had hours, days, weeks to come up with it\u2014chances are ‘high prices’ wouldn’t make a showing. Quite the opposite: if you’re anything like me, you associate Steam with swingeing sales that let you pick up vast troves of games (that you never play) for pennies.<\/p>\n

But high prices are nevertheless at the centre of a new campaign by the Netherlands’ Consumer Competition Claims Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organisation that says its aim is to “protect consumers against unfair commercial practices, including breaches of competition law, breaches of consumer law and other unlawful conduct.”<\/p>\n

The CCCF is inviting Dutch signups to “Game Claim<\/a>“, its campaign against Valve that aims first to “sit down with Valve” and then, when that inevitably yields nothing (my editorialising, not theirs), to take the whole damn company to court. Valve, claims the non-profit, is artificially inflating game prices across all PC storefronts with its 30% commission on Steam sales (for the sake of accuracy, it’s actually a little more granular: Valve’s cut drops to 25% after a game’s first $10 million in revenue and 20% after $50 million, which is still a lot!)<\/p>\n

“Valve prohibits publishers and developers from offering their games more cheaply on other PC gaming platforms,” writes the CCCF, “such as the Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store and Ubisoft Connect. It does this through a mix of contractual terms and by pressuring publishers and developers.” <\/p>\n

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