Competition law: EU authorities coordinate on gaming; the Italian authority takes the lead on Microsoft

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - European consumer protection authorities have launched coordinated actions in the gaming sector against video game companies to promote transparency and fairness in order to safeguard the rights of consumers who use video games and, in particular, those of minors. On 30 September, the European Commission announced that, as part of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, coordinated action had been launched in the gaming sector against ten video game companies (Activision Blizzard UK Limited, Crytek GmbH, InnoGames GmbH, King.com Limited, Mojang AB, Plarium Europe s.à.r.l., Plr Worldwide Sales Limited, Riot Games Limited, Supercell Oy and Ubisoft Emea Sas). These initiatives aim to ensure the full application of EU principles in the gaming sector to promote transparency and fairness in order to protect the rights of consumers who are video game users and, in particular, minors.

One of the coordinated actions announced by the European Commission is the one launched by the Italian Competition and Market Authority, as lead authority, together with the consumer protection authorities of Norway and Denmark, against Activision Blizzard UK Limited and other companies in the Microsoft group, to investigate whether there has been a ‘widespread infringement’, that is, conduct contrary to European consumer protection rules likely to harm the interests of consumers residing in three or more Member States of the European Union.

Com-Sim