ASUS - Valve & Others Are Subject of EU investigation For Illegal Price Fixing
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Caesar
waltc3
More raiding of American companies by the EU in order to raise cash--backdoor taxation--under false pretenses. Beware the government claiming to look out for consumer interests as generally that is just a cover for what they want to do that actually will hurt consumer interests, imo. DoJ in the US has been just as crummy in the past. What happens is that the "fines" get passed on to consumers, just like all taxes the state collects are paid by a company's customers ultimately. One of the most routinely hidden causes for inflation is taxation, etc. It's like the cost of petrol in the US--@ $2 a gallon, let's say, state and federal tax comprises 80 cents of the total cost...! But when you hear about the "soaring cost of gasoline" the amount we would pay sans local, state and federal tax would be ~55% of the current cost!...;) I've always found it amazing, really.
Kaarme
I thought only areas outside of EU get different prices, like the cheap prices for Russia some apparently take advantage of.
CalculuS
Kaarme
Glottiz
WhiteLightning
Moderator
Well you can buy stuff from all across europe cheaper then your own country. Why should it be different digital ?
Glottiz
Stormyandcold
If they get fined, well, the money should go back to us, the people, the customers, not back into eu coffers.
Denial
http://segmentnext.com/2016/02/18/steam-drops-2-tier-pricing-in-eu-increases-prices-for-games/
Also from what I understand, the game developer sets the price for each tier. So while Valve might have been discounting Tier 2 countries - not every developer on Steam was required to do so. I can't find a real reason as to why they dropped the tiered system. Perhaps it was because no other developers were using it although the article I linked suggests it was due to EU laws:
Before Feb 2016, valve separated the EU into two zones.
Tier 1:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Sweden or Switzerland.
And Tier 2:
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.
The pricing was different between the two zones, an example I found was:
Team Fortress 2
Tier 1: 19,99€
Tier 2: 14,99€
In Feb 2016, Valve dropped the tiered system.
DeadlyBGShadow
Most games where priced the same while some where more or less.
The statement that Tier 2 payed less for games is bogus.
We all payed in Euro and under the same VAT % and it's normal because our Currency is Fixed to EUR so nothing like Russians and Latin Americas pricing can be examined.
As for Sales that's individual for every Developer/Publisher And here lies the Problem.
PS: The biggest CRIME is $ = € ,practice that we endured and still endure most of the time.
Glottiz
@Denial
These tears were utter nonsense. Are you saying Albania has higher living standard than Norway or Monaco? And your TF2 example is so old and meaningless (game is free for years!), 99% of the time tier 2 price = tier 1 price. I know, because I live in tier 2 country and I had to pay full price 60 or 50 euro for new games for YEARS.
sykozis
Denial
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_5.9.4.html
...
I don't live in the EU and I'm not familiar with most of Eastern Europe or the various standards of living there. I was merely clarifying that Valve did at one point separate the EU and did at one point charge differently depending on the country - which is what CalculuS wrote and you said was wrong. You may not have experienced it in your country - or any of the games you bought, but clearly at one point TF2 was different. Judging by the content I've read, the T2 pricing was rarely used as publishers opted to keep pricing the same across both tiers. That being said, Valve did offer the ability for Publishers to separate the pricing and Valve itself did lower prices slightly on it's games in the T2 region.
Also I guess this is the law that was passed that forced Valve to drop the T2 entirely:
cryohellinc
Good lord, we have whole EU parliament assembly members here.
Reqruiz
go4brendon
I still don't understand how steam can have a 'marketplace' where u sell items but aren't entitled to having that credit transferred to your bank account even though they charge u a transaction fee, its ridiculous.
Stormyandcold
BColt
Aura89