The European Commission fined Valve, Capcom and ZeniMax for regional binding of games

The European Commission, the highest executive body of the European Union, has fined several large gaming companies for regionally linking games to a specific country. This is a direct violation of EU antitrust rules.

Among the companies that were fined were such giants as Valve, ZeniMax, Capcom and others. The total amount of the fine is 7.8 million euros. To all companies, with the exception of Valve, which refused to cooperate, the European Commission made a discount of 10-15% of the fine.

Penalties:

• Bandai Namco - 340 thousand euros
• Capcom - 396 thousand euros
• Focus Home - 2 million 888 thousand euros
• Koch Media - 977 thousand euros
• ZeniMax - 1 million 664 thousand euros
• Valve - 1 million 624 thousand euros (no reduction)

The crux of the problem is that games purchased in one region could not be activated in another. Among such territories were the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Regional restrictions applied to hundreds of titles of various genres.