PC gamers in countries without PlayStation Network have expressed their frustration at Sony after the confirmation they cannot buy single-player games God of War Ragnarok and Until Dawn on Steam.
Is it even legal in the EU for a company to allow sales in one part, but not another? Do they actively clock PS(4/5) devices from being activated in parts of the EU?
I’d think this would be illegal, but I am not from the EU.
Vague memory, but they can prevent it from being on the (for example) Lithuanian Steam page, but they cannot prevent a Lithuanian from creating an Italian account and use it.
This is something that arose from Netflix forcing people to use their countries accounts.
It’s surely much more complex than that. Hopefully somebody can corroborate or correct.
No it is not legal. Geo blocking within the EU is not allowed. But as always there are many exceptions… probably they will argue exception if ever taken to court, and if found in breach will just go “my bad” and get time to resolve the issue without a fine.
Is it even legal in the EU for a company to allow sales in one part, but not another? Do they actively clock PS(4/5) devices from being activated in parts of the EU?
I’d think this would be illegal, but I am not from the EU.
Vague memory, but they can prevent it from being on the (for example) Lithuanian Steam page, but they cannot prevent a Lithuanian from creating an Italian account and use it.
This is something that arose from Netflix forcing people to use their countries accounts.
It’s surely much more complex than that. Hopefully somebody can corroborate or correct.
No it is not legal. Geo blocking within the EU is not allowed. But as always there are many exceptions… probably they will argue exception if ever taken to court, and if found in breach will just go “my bad” and get time to resolve the issue without a fine.