Sony faces $7.9 billion class action lawsuit over PlayStation Store prices

Sony is facing a $7.9 billion class action lawsuit over allegations of abuse of dominance, which led to unfair pricing for consumers. This decision was made by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, according to Reuters.

Last year, consumer rights expert Alex Neill filed a lawsuit against Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) on behalf of nearly 9 million gamers in the UK who purchased digital versions of games or additional content from the PlayStation Store.

According to her, the company abused its dominant position by insisting that games be bought and sold only on the PlayStation Store, which charges a 30% commission to developers and publishers. As a result, gamers were forced to pay inflated prices for content.

Instead, Sony’s lawyers asserted that the case was flawed from start to finish and called for it to be dismissed.

Now the Appeal Tribunal has decided that the case can continue. But it said that people who made purchases from the PlayStation Store after the lawsuit was filed should be excluded from the list of plaintiffs.

It is noteworthy that last year the amount of the claim was $6.23 billion, but later increased to $7.9 billion.

Commenting on the court’s decision, Alex Neill said that this is the first step towards ensuring that consumers get back what they are owed.