Sony came under fire for allegedly abusing its dominance in the industry

Sony has become the target of an antitrust investigation by the Romanian Competition Council, which has raised concerns that the firm is abusing its dominant position within the console gaming market. How exactly? According to the RCC, this is because Sony sells video games exclusively through the PlayStation Store and to restrict competing distributors from accessing activation codes.

shared on Reset eraRCC has published Press release (in Romanian) which describes part of the body’s issues as follows: “These practices have reduced the purchasing options for PlayStation-compatible video games, leading to higher prices for video games of this type of console. Another effect of these practices is discouraging. Romanian studios from developing video games compatible with the PlayStation.”

The RCC is apparently quite serious, informing readers that it has already investigated Sony’s European headquarters to get to the bottom of things. The press release stated that approximately “1.3 million console video game users” and “127 video game development studios” would be affected by Sony’s anticompetitive practices.

We won’t pretend to be lawyers here, but our understanding of the matter is that codes for digital games cannot be purchased from other retailers, which does not allow competition on price. Until a few years ago, Sony allowed the practice, so it is interesting to see that this issue has now reared its head.

Who is on the right here? Traffic in Tex’s free market is in the comments section below.