13,5 Million: Sony fined by French regulators

The French antitrust authority Autorite de la Concurrence has imposed a fine of 13.5 million euros on Sony. The authority ruled that the company had abused its market position in the supply of PS4 controllers for more than four years, thereby harming competing companies.

Two violations

The authority based the fine on two infringements: Firstly, Sony had taken technical measures in 2015 to combat counterfeits that had unintentionally impaired the function of controllers from other manufacturers.

In addition, competing companies were prevented from joining the PlayStation licensing program, which is only granted via the format owner's PlayStation partnership program.

Damage for third-party manufacturers

The Autorité considers that "(...) "the combination of these two practices has significantly damaged the brand image of the third-party manufacturers concerned, both among the players and the distributors, which has slowed their expansion on the market and led to their possible exclusion from the market (…)".

Source: www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr