Valve’s region-blocking on the Steam digital distribution platform and alleged price-fixing by Asus have brought the companies to the attention of the European Commission. The European Commission has opened a series of investigations into the behaviour of companies including Valve and Asus, on allegations of common market violations and price fixing.
In three separate cases, the European Commission’s antitrust arm has begun investigating claims that major industry names have been flouting the law — beginning with Asus, which is named alongside Denon & Marantz, Philips, and Pioneer as having been refusing to allow online retailers to set their own pricing for goods including audio equipment and laptops. Valve, meanwhile, is named alongside publishers Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and Zenimax as using geographic restrictions on content to strangle parallel trade within the European Union’s Single Market.
