- Lawsuit accuses Chicago doctor of abusing more than 300 women over decades Yahoo! Voices
- New lawsuit alleges abuse by former Endeavor Health gynecologist Fabio Ortega Chicago Tribune
- 300 women suing Dr. Fabio Ortega, NorthShore University HealthSystem gynecologist at one time, who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse WLS-TV
- Chicago gynecologist accused of sexually abusing more than 300 patients at several area hospitals: complaint FOX 32 Chicago
- Top Chicago hospitals accused of ignoring sexual abuse allegations against gynecologist for decades NBC Chicago
Tag Archives: abusing
Taylor Swift ticket snafu caused by Ticketmaster abusing its market power, Senate antitrust chair says
New York
CNN Business
—
Senator Amy Klobuchar criticized Ticketmaster in an open letter to its CEO, saying she has “serious concerns” about the company’s operations following a service meltdown Tuesday that left Taylor Swift fans irate.
In the letter to CEO Michael Rapino, the Democrat from Minnesota and chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, wrote that complaints from Swift fans unable to buy tickets for her upcoming tour, in addition to criticism about high fees, suggests that the company “continues to abuse its market positions.”
“Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services. That can result in the types of dramatic service failures we saw this week, where consumers are the ones that pay the price,” Klobuchar wrote.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the country’s largest concert promoter, merged about a decade ago. Klobuchar noted that the company at the time pledged to “develop an easy-access, one-stop platform” for ticket delivery. On Thursday, the senator told Rapino that it “appears that your confidence was misplaced.”
“When Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2010, it was subject to an antitrust consent decree that prohibited it from abusing its market position,” Klobuchar wrote. “Nonetheless, there have been numerous complaints about your company’s compliance with that decree.”
The letter includes a list of questions for Rapino to answer by next week. Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN Business.
On Tuesday, the company said “there has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up” to buy tickets for Swift’s tour and thanked fans for their “patience.”
Klobuchar is the latest high-profile politician to openly criticize Ticketmaster for the ticketing disaster that left bad blood between Swift fans and the company.
“@Ticketmaster’s excessive wait times and fees are completely unacceptable, as seen with today’s @taylorswift13 tickets, and are a symptom of a larger problem. It’s no secret that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is an unchecked monopoly,” Rep. David Cicilline, currently the chairman of the Antitrust Subcommittee, tweeted on Tuesday.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reined in,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Complaints about the company’s monopoly power go back long, long before Tuesday’s ticket problems, when the platform appeared to crash or freeze during presale purchases for Swift’s latest tour.
In 1994, when Taylor Swift was only four years old and ticket purchase queues were in person or on the phone, not online, the rock group Pearl Jam filed a complaint with the Justice Department’s antitrust division asserting that Ticketmaster has a “virtually absolute monopoly on the distribution of tickets to concerts.” It tried to book its tour only at venues that didn’t use Ticketmaster.
The Justice Department and many state attorneys general have made similar complaints over the years.
Despite those concerns, Ticketmaster continued to grow more dominant. Pearl Jam’s complaint was quietly dismissed. The Justice Department and states allowed the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger to go through despite a 2010 court filing in the case raising objections to the merger. In the filing, the Justice Department said that Ticketmaster’s share among major concert venues exceeded 80%.
– CNN Business’ Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
Yellen vows tough U.S. measures against countries abusing economic order
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference, ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, July 14, 2022. Made Nagi/Pool via REUTERS
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SEOUL, July 19 (Reuters) – The United States will impose harsh consequences on countries that break the international economic order, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday.
“Economic integration has been weaponised by Russia,” she said, calling for all responsible countries to unite in opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The United States is pushing for increased trade ties with South Korea and other trusted allies to improve the resilience of supply chains, and avert possible manipulation by geopolitical rivals, Yellen told Reuters on Monday. read more
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Yellen said in remarks prepared for the event she was heartened by conversations with Korean counterparts on a proposed cap on the price of Russian oil.
Yellen has said she will discuss the oil price cap proposal with top officials in Seoul.
On Tuesday morning, Yellen was hosted by LG Chem (051910.KS) CEO Hak Cheol Shin in a tour of LG facilities in Seoul.
Yellen, an avid collector of rocks, listened attentively as Shin explained the process of building electric vehicles, including the need for lithium.
LG Chem, besides being the parent company of electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution (373220.KS), also has battery materials and petrochemical businesses.
Yellen is in South Korea on the final leg of her 11-day visit to the Indo-Pacific region. read more
(The story is refiled to remove repeated sentence)
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Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Writing by Joyce Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates
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Teacher fired after being caught on video abusing horse
A primary school teacher in the UK has been axed after being caught on now-viral video kicking and slapping a horse.
Sarah Moulds, 37, a mother of two who taught at Somerby Primary School in Melton Mowbray, sparked widespread condemnation when she was caught beating the horse after a hunt on Nov. 6, the Mirror reported.
The anti-hunt group Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs said it recorded the incident while its members observed the Cottesmore Hunt in Rutland, East Midlands, according to the Guardian.
Moulds is seen pummeling the animal as she dragged it back to a trailer.
The Mowbray Education Trust, which represents seven schools in the area, suspended Moulds in November — but its chief operating officer, Paul Maddox, has confirmed that she has since been terminated.
“As a Trust we are committed to ensuring the best standard of education for all of our young people and we look forward to continuing this throughout the 2021/22 academic year and beyond,” he said in a statement.
Moulds also was booted from a volunteer leadership position at the Pony Club, which organizes horse rides for kids, the Guardian reported.
“The welfare of horses and ponies is of the utmost importance to the Pony Club, therefore the lady in question has been removed from her voluntary position as a team organiser for a branch,” the club said.
The Hunting Office said it “expects the highest level of animal welfare at all times — both on and off the hunting field — and condemns the actions taken by this individual, who is not a member of the hunting associations,” according to the news outlet.
Meanwhile, Leicestershire police said it would assist the RSPCA in the investigation.
Moulds’ uncle, David Kirkham, defended the disgraced educator, whom he described as a “fantastic person who absolutely loves her horses,” the Guardian reported.
“I’ve seen the video but we don’t know what the horse had been doing and if it was out of control. But we know it ran out onto the road and she told it off. There was no malice intended,” he said.
Woman testifies Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein started sexually abusing her when she was 14
The woman, identified in court as by the pseudonym “Jane,” said after that 1994 introduction she and her mother met Epstein for tea in Florida when he said he could mentor her. She then started going to Epstein’s home by herself.
At first, Maxwell and Epstein made her feel special — spending time with her, asking about her family and interests and taking her to do fun things, she said.
For the first few months of knowing them, Maxwell felt like an older sister, she said.
“It changed when the abuse started happening,” she said.
“Jane” described in graphic detail incidents of sexual abuse with Epstein that Maxwell would at times join in on, both in Palm Beach, Florida, and Manhattan when she was 14, 15 and 16 years old.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and the transportation of minors to engage in criminal sexual activity for allegedly grooming and recruiting underage girls from 1994 through 1997.
She is also charged with sex trafficking of a minor from 2001 to 2004, as well as one count of sex trafficking conspiracy.
Speaking at times with a quivering voice and wiping her eyes and nose with a tissue, “Jane” testified that Epstein and Maxwell gradually normalized sexuality for the then 14-year-old girl.
At times, Epstein would masturbate on her and molest her, she said. Maxwell would sometimes be involved, touching her and Epstein, she testified.
At least once, Maxwell “instructed” her how Epstein liked to be massaged while the three were in Epstein’s “massage room,” she testified.
“It seemed very casual, like it was very normal, like it was not big deal,” she said. “It made me feel confused because that did not feel normal to me.”
“Jane” is known as Minor Victim-1 in a federal indictment detailing the allegations against Maxwell.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell’s counsel maintains she was charged only because he died.
The pair is reported to have split in the 1990s, although the socialite remained close to him.
Testimony began Monday with pilot on stand
Maxwell’s trial began Monday with testimony from a pilot who flew Epstein’s plane. He said he remembered meeting “Jane,” but could not be sure she actually flew on the private jet.
In he final half-hour of Tuesday’s court session, defense attorney Laura Menninger started cross-examination of “Jane” by asking her why she waited two decades to report her allegations to law enforcement.
Menninger also asked her about the $5 million she received through the Epstein Victim Compensation Program.
“Jane” acknowledged she dropped a 2020 lawsuit against Maxwell per the program agreement in order to receive the financial payment.
Cross-examination is expected to continue Wednesday.
On Tuesday, “Jane” said she first confided in a boyfriend of her abuse around 2007 when Epstein was arrested in Florida. Eventually she told several people including her siblings about her experience, she testified.
“Because how do you tell or describe any of this to any one of your peers or your siblings when all you feel is shame and disgust and confusion and you don’t even know how you ended up there?”
“Jane” testified she felt she couldn’t tell anyone about the abuse when she was a child in part because her mother discouraged her from speaking her mind.
“My mom was so enamored with the idea that these wealthy, affluent people took an interest in me,” she said.
“Jane” said she continued to give Epstein sexualized massages at least through her schooling in New York when she was 18.
She would tell people Epstein was her “godfather” and dropped everything to answer his calls when he would reach out, she said.
Epstein started giving “Jane” cash soon after the abuse started in 1994, and later paid for voice lessons, school, clothes and housing for her family, she said.
She said she couldn’t pinpoint how many times Maxwell partook in the abuse because it all runs together in her memory.
“It all started to seem the same after a while and you just become numb to it,” she said.
The woman cut off contact with Epstein around 2002. Her mother was still living in a New York apartment he paid for at the time, she said.
Federal prosecutors are expected to call “Jane’s” previous boyfriend to testify after about what she shared with him about her alleged abuse, but the judge has said she will rule on that Wednesday morning.
Woman admits to abusing two daughters
SINGAPORE — A mother of three admitted to abusing her two daughters, with her violence against the girls captured on CCTV footage.
The 38-year-old appeared in court via videolink on Thursday (16 September) to plead guilty to seven of her 11 charges – all of which are for ill-treating her daughters.
The eldest daughter, now 10, often bore the brunt of the assault, and at one point lost a tooth from a particularly brutal slap from her mother. The girl was eight and 10 years old at the time of the offences.
Her second daughter, now six, was four at the time of the offences. The woman has a son whose age was undisclosed. He is not a victim.
All the children cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court.
On 21 June 2019, the police received a report from the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) that the woman had assaulted, slapped and kicked the eldest daughter, causing her to lose two front teeth.
Around 19 December 2018, the father installed a CCTV camera in the living room as his wife would often leave the three children alone at home.
On 18 June 2019, the man came home to find that his eldest daughter’s front teeth were broken. The girl revealed that her mother had kicked her, causing her mouth to bleed and her front teeth to break. The father brought the girl to seek medical attention at KKH.
He then checked the CCTV recordings and discovered that his wife had assaulted the two girls on other occasions.
The girl later revealed that her mother began beating her when she was in kindergarten. The beatings worsened in 2018, when the girl began attending primary school. The girl did not speak of the assault to anyone as she was afraid her mother would beat her more. She did not know she could confide in her schoolteachers.
When confronted, the woman said she was “disciplining her children as they were very naughty”. She claimed that she only hit them when necessary, and would mostly scold or ground them in their room or make them face the wall.
The abuse occurred from June 2019 to August 2021, with CCTV footage revealing the woman’s brutality towards her eldest daughter. In the seven recordings played in court, she can be seen flinging the girl onto the floor, dragging her by her hair from the living room to the bedroom, and throwing a marker at her head. She is also seen slapping and kicking the girl.
In the only footage with audio played in court, the woman can be seen pulling her daughter’s ear in the kitchen and scolding her in a mixture of English and Malay, with the girl heard sobbing.
At the end of the exchange, the woman is heard yelling, “Now get out of my face” at the girl, who scurries from the kitchen.
When the woman was investigated, she would deny certain actions.
Following an incident on 5 July 2019, after the woman had pinched her younger daughter and slapped her face, both girls were temporarily taken from the home on 22 August 2019 by a Child Protection Officer. However, the children were returned afterwards and the abuse continued.
On 1 December 2019, the woman threw a marker pen at her elder daughter’s forehead after the girl complained about her siblings. Realising that her daughter’s head was bleeding, the woman told the girl she “deserved it” and asked her to “get out of the house”, prompting an apology from the girl.
Her husband alerted the Child Protection Officer, who then said she would come by the house the next day. Upon finding out that the officer was coming by, the woman asked her daughter to lie that the girl and her mother had merely been playing when a toy hit her forehead.
After noticing that his wife was losing his temper at the children for no reason in August this year, the man viewed CCTV and was shocked to see his wife abusing their daughters again earlier in the year, despite being charged for child abuse and placed on bail. He alerted Child Protection Services.
In the course of investigations, the woman claimed that she was discipling her daughter to behave as she was going to jail.
A psychiatric report stated that the woman did not have a diagnosable mental illness at time of offences, nor does she currently suffer from any condition.
She also failed to demonstrate a convincing level of insight into how her methods would affect the children’s emotional, social and cognitive development.
The woman also displayed a degree of resistance in adopting alternative acceptable methods to teach her children.
The report stated that any future interaction between the woman and her children should be strictly supervised by responsible adults, as the possibility of her using harsh punishment on her children remained high.
She will return to court for her sentencing on 29 September.
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Bob Dylan sued for allegedly sexually abusing 12-year-old in 1965
Legendary crooner Bob Dylan plied a 12-year-old girl with drugs and alcohol before sexually abusing her at his Chelsea Hotel apartment in 1965, an explosive new lawsuit alleges.
The “Blowin’ in the Wind” musician used his star status to groom, gain the trust of and control the victim “as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse” her, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court papers, which only identify the plaintiff as “J.C.”
“Bob Dylan, over a six-week period between April and May of 1965 befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff,” say the papers, which were filed late Friday on behalf of J.C., now a 68-year-old woman in Greenwich, Conn.
The suit alleges that Dylan — whose given name is Robert Allen Zimmerman — established the “connection” to “lower [J.C.’s] inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol and threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day.”
The alleged abuse by the now-81-year-old “Like a Rolling Stone” singer and songwriter occurred multiple times, and some of the incidents took place at the famed Chelsea Hotel, the suit claims.
J.C. says the emotional effects of the abuse have been long-lasting and that she has had to seek medical treatment for them, according to the filing.
The fallout she suffered — including depression, humiliation and anxiety — “are of a permanent and lasting natures and have incapacitated plaintiff from attending her regular activities,” the suit claims.
J.C. brought allegations of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress against Dylan. She is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.
Dylan’s spokesman told The Post on Monday, “This 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.”
J.C.’s lawyer, Daniel Isaacs, said, “The complaint speaks for itself.”
He declined to comment further.
The suit was filed late Friday, on the eve of the closure of the New York Child Victims’ Act look-back window. The window allowed victims of childhood abuse to file suit against their attackers and the institutions that protected them regardless of how old the claims were and whether they had since passed beyond the statute of limitations.
Dylan recently won an unrelated lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court brought by the wife of his one-time collaborator seeking a cut of the sale of the star’s song collection.
R. Kelly Accused of Sexually Abusing Male Minor He Met at McDonald’s
R. Kelly is facing new allegations in his criminal case out of Chicago — which is about to go to trial next month — including claims that he sexually abused a male minor … whom he’s said to have met at a McDonald’s.
Prosecutors in Kelly’s federal sex trafficking case filed the bombshell Friday, seeking to enter new evidence they say supports their accusations of a slew of new crimes they insist Kelly committed … including alleged abuse of a male under the age of 18 in the 2000s.
According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Kelly met a 17-year-old boy in 2006 at a McDonald’s … whom they say Kelly then invited to a party at his Chicago residence. The kid went with his parents, but the feds say Kelly told him to swing by next time by himself … and, apparently, the 17-year-old did — at which point, things allegedly turned sexual.
The feds say that upon returning visits to Kelly’s place — and under the guise of trying to help jumpstart the boy’s singing career — Kelly began a sexual relationship with him. Soon after that, prosecutors claim the 17-year-old intro’d Kelly to yet another minor male — who was either 16 or 17 at the time — and they say Kelly sought to sexually abuse him too.
It wasn’t until years later, it seems, that something materialized between the second John Doe and Kelly, so say the feds. They say Kelly did, in fact, begin a sexual relationship with him as well — but that he allegedly would command the guy to have sex with women in his orbit … and allegedly filmed a lot of those encounters. There are new Jane Does sprinkled in the filing as well, BTW … on top of the ones he’s already alleged to have trafficked.
The McDonald’s thing is interesting … we know he’s a fan of the Golden Arches. He went there for after posting bail and (temporarily) being sprung from jail more than 2 years ago.
Anyway, there are even more accusations the federal government wants permission to support with new evidence it says it’s obtained … including the claim that someone on R. Kelly’s team successfully bribed a Cook County official for inside info on the case back in 2019.
Allegedly, that CC official took $2,500 from this Kelly team member … as well as a burner phone so they could communicate. The official is said to be a clerk … but is unnamed.
2/25/19
TMZ.com
A judge has yet to rule on what Uncle Sam wants — namely, to submit this new evidence they say they have, to have it looked over, which they hope leads to even further charges filed against the singer. This trial is supposed to get underway in about 4 weeks.
R. Kelly has other legal trouble in other states … but the federal case seems to be the one that’ll get started first. He’s been given more time to secure and confer with new attorneys in the wake of much of his old legal team jumping ship in the past several months.
Lawsuit accuses Valve of abusing Steam market power to prevent price competition • Eurogamer.net
A new lawsuit has accused Valve of abusing Steam’s market power to prevent price competition.
The Hollywood Reporter said that five gamers filed an antitrust class action in California that alleges Valve requires developers and publishers enter into a “Most Favoured Nation” clause.
Eurogamer Next-Gen News Cast – Should Sony issue refunds for Control on PS5?
A Most Favoured Nation clause is a retail parity clause in which a supplier agrees to treat a particular customer no worse than all other customers. MFNs are under increased scrutiny from authorities across the world, including the European Commission.
The lawsuit alleges a developer or publisher must agree the price of a PC game on Steam will be the same price as on other PC platforms. Essentially, the lawsuit claims Steam does not allow developers to price their games lower on other platforms.
The suit, submitted by American law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP, says Valve’s MFN clause keeps prices of PC games high on other platforms, such as the Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store.
“The Steam MFN also hinders innovation by creating an artificial barrier to entry for platforms,” reads the complaint.
“When a market, such as this one, is highly concentrated, a new entrant can benefit consumers by undercutting the incumbent’s prices. The ability to provide PC games to consumers at lower prices is one way a firm or new entrant could gain market share. If this market functioned properly – that is, if the Steam MFN did not exist and platforms were able to compete on price – platforms competing with Steam would be able to provide the same (or higher) margins to game developers while simultaneously providing lower prices to consumers.”
The lawsuit uses tweets from Epic boss Tim Sweeney to back up its case. In a January 2019 tweet, Sweeney said Steam “has veto power over prices”.
Steam has veto power over prices, so if a multi-store developer wishes to sell their game for a lower price on the Epic Games store than Steam, then:
1) Valve can simply say ?no?
2) Pricing disparity would likely anger Steam users, leading to review bombing, etc— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 30, 2019
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Then, in a February tweet, Sweeney added:
“If the dominant store has a price parity clause, and takes a much higher revenue share than competitors, then the only way for creators to pass savings on to gamers is by avoiding the dominant store.
“That’s what this is ultimately about!”
Curiously, the lawsuit includes a raft of publishers as co-defendants: CD Projekt, Ubisoft, kChamp Games (the one-man indie developer behind ShellShock Live), Rust, LLC (the Los Angeles developer behind Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades), and Devolver Digital. The lawsuit alleges these companies agreed to the Steam MFN.
But why include only these publishers and developers and not the many others who release games on Steam? Why single out two indie developers in this case?
The suit alleges that if Steam MFN did not exist and platforms were able to compete on price, then platforms competing with Steam would be able to provide the same (or higher) margins to game developers while simultaneously providing lower prices to consumers. But does this play out in reality?
Ubisoft ditched Steam a while back to launch its PC games on the Epic Games Store. On Epic’s platform, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla costs £49.99. That’s the same price as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey costs on Steam. Despite the increased revenue share afforded to publishers and developers on the Epic Games Store and the fact Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is not on Steam, it doesn’t look like any saving has been passed on to customers.
And what about this Steam MVN upon which the lawsuit is based? According to the pricing section of Steamworks’ documentation, developers and publishers are responsible for setting and managing pricing for their products. However, the blurb confirms Valve will review initial pricing and proposed pricing adjustments (sales).
“Initial pricing as well as proposed pricing adjustments will be reviewed by Valve and are usually processed within one or two business days,” reads the documentation.
“We recommend pricing strategies based on our experience and we may suggest prices based on currency conversions and other factors.”
Does this amount to an MVN clause? Tim Sweeney seems to think so. In a February 2019 tweet, the Epic boss said the “reviewed by Valve” line “shows developers don’t have autonomy to set prices for games”.
There is a clearer stipulation in the Steam keys section of the Steamworks documentation that reveals Valve expects price parity on Steam keys, specifically:
“Please note that Steam keys cannot be sold on other sites unless the product is also available for purchase on Steam at no higher a price than is offered on any other service or website.”
What’s going on here, then? Back in February 2019, Epic’s Tim Sweeney tweeted to suggest private agreements between Steam and developers is not usually known.
“The situation with price parity expectations on Steam is not transparent,” Sweeney said. “Valve’s public docs say temporary sales elsewhere are fine but they expect overall price parity on Steam keys. What each private Steam agreement with developers require is not generally know.”
Then, later from Sweeney on Twitter:
“We have been told by multiple developers that Valve has approval over price and that long-term price parity (excluding temporary sales) is expected. We are researching further. Because these agreements are private, any Valve clarification would be helpful.”
Valve is yet to comment on the lawsuit. Devolver has shrugged it off.
We started Rust Inc. to quietly steal Rust away from you.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) January 29, 2021
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The lawsuit wants a ruling that Steam’s supposed MFN clause “is anticompetitive and constitutes illegal monopolisation and monopoly maintenance”, an injunction, damages and legal costs.
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A New Lawsuit Accuses Valve of Abusing Its Power to Keep PC Game Prices High
A new lawsuit filed by five gamers in California federal court accuses Valve of abusing its power to keep PC game prices high.As reported by THR, this lawsuit claims that Valve does not maintain its dominance over the PC market by offering better prices on Steam than other platforms, but does so by abusing its power to require developers to enter what is known as a ‘Most Favored Nations’ clause.
“Valve Corporation’s Steam platform is the dominant platform for game developers to distribute and sell PC games in the United States,” states the complaint being handled by attorneys at Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease. “But the Steam platform does not maintain its dominance through better pricing than by rival platforms. Instead, Valve abuses the Steam platform’s market power by requiring game developers to enter into a ‘Most Favored Nations’ provision contained in the Steam Distribution Agreement whereby the game developers agree that the price of a PC game on the Steam platform will be the same price the game developers sell their PC games on other platforms.”
The lawsuit also alleges that, because Valve requires developers to enter this ‘Most Favored Nations’ clause, it “hinders innovation by creating an artificial barrier to entry for platforms” and keeps prices high on other digital storefronts like the Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store.
“The Steam MFN also hinders innovation by creating an artificial barrier to entry for platforms,” adds the complaint. “When a market, such as this one, is highly concentrated, a new entrant can benefit consumers by undercutting the incumbent’s prices. The ability to provide PC games to consumers at lower prices is one way a firm or new entrant could gain market share. If this market functioned properly—that is, if the Steam MFN did not exist and platforms were able to compete on price—platforms competing with Steam would be able to provide the same (or higher) margins to game developers while simultaneously providing lower prices to consumers.”
CD Projekt S.A., CD Projekt, Inc., Ubisoft Entertainment S.A., Ubisoft, Inc., Ubisoft L.A., Inc., kChamp Games, Inc., Rust, LLC, and Devolver Digital, Inc. are also included as defendants on the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs accusing these companies of agreeing with the Steam platform to the Steam MFN.This new class action lawsuit follows Valve, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax being fined $9.4 million by the European Commission over the practice of “geo-blocking.”
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.