Sony hit with $2.67 billion lawsuit over alleged digital sales monopoly

UK class-action lawsuit is challenging Sony's alleged monopoly over digital game sales A tribunal in the United Kingdom is hearing a class-action lawsuit against Sony for "monopolising" digital game sales via its PlayStation Store, the BBC has reported. First filed in 2022 by consumer rights advocate Alex Neill, the lawsuit argues that PlayStation owners have faced "excessive and unfair" charges via Sony's "closed eco-system." As it stands now, the only storefront available on PlayStation consoles is Sony's. "The result is that Sony can and does set the retail prices of all such content itself without facing any retail competition for digital content," the lawsuit's representative, Robert Palmer KC, said. "It allows it to obtain monopoly profits from digital distribution, setting retail prices at what it refers to as its target margin of an excessive and unfair 30% above the level of the digital wholesale prices." The lawsuit is seeking £2 billion ($2.67 billion) on behalf of an estimated 12.2 million users, which would equate to £162 (about $216) per person. UK PlayStation users who have purchased a game from the PlayStation Store over roughly the past decade are eligible. Sony ar