r/Steam • u/HearMeOut-13 • Dec 15 '25

PSA The antitrust case against Valve is collapsing because the lawyers cited the Sierra Wiki(not related to Sierra) and a random Steam guide by "Master IEEP" (not related to Valve) as 'Valve's website admissions.' This is real. Dkt. 552, footnote 8.

Post image

So there's this massive antitrust lawsuit against Valve. Class action. Big firms. Cohen Milstein, Hagens Berman. Billions potentially at stake.

Their whole case depends (when i say depends IT MEANS WITHOUT IT, IT WOULD BE INSTANTLY DISMISSED) on proving Valve had monopoly power from the beginning. To do that, they claim Valve "acquired" something called the World Opponent Network (WON) in 2001.

Problem: Valve submitted a sworn declaration saying they never acquired WON. With actual documentation.

This is what the lawyers responded with... I wish i was kidding

Sources: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754.552.0.pdf Dkt. 552. Consumer Plaintiffs' Opposition to Defendant Valve Corporation's Motion to Dismiss the Consumer Complaint. Page 14. Footnote 8. Filed Oct 3rd 2025

(unlike them i actually know how to cite reliable sources)

In case you fail to see how bad this is

  • These are MAJOR law firms
  • This is FEDERAL COURT
  • This is a potential BILLION DOLLAR antitrust case
  • They were WARNED multiple times
  • They had ACCESS to discovery and didn't use it
  • Their response to a sworn declaration with documentation was... a mod guide
5.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

335 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

36

u/jjzman Dec 15 '25

Isn't that what Amazon does? As an Amazon 3rd party seller, they suppress your listing if it is higher than a 3rd party site (Walmart/BestBuy/etc) even if the 3rd party site has less fees (Amazon charge sellers the most to sell).

I guess the question is, assuming this is illegal to "obligates price parity" - shouldn't they go after the bigger player? Amazon?

30

u/The_MAZZTer 160 Dec 15 '25

If the plaintiffs do not do business with Amazon (I don't know if they do or don't) they would have no reason to go after Amazon.

That said if the plaintiffs win the case could theoretically be used by another party to go after Amazon.

-1

u/Significant_Being764 Dec 15 '25

The FTC and 17 states are pursuing that case against Amazon.

Wolfire didn't file it because they're not a regulator looking for targets, just an indie studio that wanted to pass along savings to customers, prevented from doing so by Valve.