The French authorities, through La Autorité, a local competition body, have determined that Sony must pay a multimillion-dollar fine for blocking PS4 controllers for years.

The Japanese giant, in all its subsidiaries, will have to pay 13.5 million euros (14.8 million dollars). This means that it applies to Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited, Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. K.K and Sony Interactive Entertainment France.

It all started with the complaint of Subsonic, a French video game accessory manufacturer, about the obstacles imposed by Sony before the authorities. “Following an indication from Subsonic, a French video game controller manufacturer, the Authority has fined Sony for abusing its dominant position in the market for the supply of video game controllers for PlayStation 4 for more than four years.”

The investigation found that Sony used two anti-competitive practices to block third-party PS4 controllers. The first consists of “a series of technical measures whose purpose was to combat piracy of original PS4 accessories. Through software, they could cause third-party controllers to disconnect when the console updated its operating system. Although the regulator recognizes that this measure was intended to combat product counterfeiting, they also consider that Sony abused its system to block unlicensed controls.”

Second, it implemented an “unclear policy on how a third party could obtain authorization to manufacture and market controllers for the PS4. Because of this, it was easier for Sony to exclude smaller companies from joining its licensing program.”

La Autorité, the French regulatory body, estimated that both methods implemented by Sony caused significant damage to the brand image of the affected third-party manufacturers, hindering their expansion in the market and causing their possible exclusion.

M.Pino

Source: hipertextual

(Reference image source: JESHOOTS.COM, Unsplash)

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