If you purchased a digital game from PlayStation Store between April 2019 and December 2023, you may soon receive store credit on your account. A federal judge in San Francisco has given preliminary approval to a proposed $7.85 million settlement for a class-action lawsuit accusing Sony of eliminating competition and monopolizing the market for its digital games through the PlayStation Store.
The lawsuit was first filed in May 2021 and claims Sony’s alleged anticompetitive behavior caused gamers to “pay more than they otherwise would have paid for certain digital games.” The lawsuit comes after Sony eliminated “game-specific coupons” sold by third-party companies in April 2019, which the lawsuit says could have led to lower prices on the PlayStation Store if customers had had alternative options from other retailers like Best Buy, GameStop and others.
The law firm representing the affected users has published a list of eligible games, which includes The last of us, NBA 2K18 And Need for speed rivalsand said there are more than 4.4 million eligible PlayStation Network accounts. For anyone eligible for the class action settlement, you will see your PSN account credited once final approvals are obtained. The court will hold a fairness hearing on October 15, which will see the final judgment and the plan to allocate the millions of dollars to eligible accounts.
Notably, this suit is separate from another similar lawsuit filed in the United Kingdom. Also a class action, the case accuses Sony of “unfairly overcharging its UK customers for digital games and gaming content purchased through the PlayStation Store.” Unlike this recent settlement, Sony could pay out up to $2.7 billion to UK residents due to alleged antitrust actions.
