Judge dismisses lawsuit over alleged “monopoly pricing” on PlayStation Store

A judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit that argued Sony was abusing its monopoly power in the digital PlayStation games market. But the dismissal leaves room for an amended complaint with additional factual context to move forward with the same "viable" antitrust arguments.

The lawsuit, originally filed last May, hinged on Sony's 2019 decision to stop allowing physical and online retailers from selling digital download codes for games on the PSN store (as Nintendo and Microsoft still allow). That decision was "specifically intended to and did eliminate price competition from other digital video game retailers," the lawsuit alleged, forcing players "to pay a higher price for digital PlayStation games than they would in a free and unrestrained competitive retail market."

But in a ruling filed last week (as noted by Bloomberg Law), Northern California District Judge Richard Seeborg wrote that the class action plaintiffs didn't provide "sufficient factual detail" that Sony "voluntarily terminated a profitable practice" in removing the retail download codes.

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