The General Court of the European Union has confirmed that Valve Corporation, along with five PC video game publishers, unlawfully restricted cross-border sales through geo-blocking activation keys for the Steam platform. This decision follows an investigation initiated by the European Commission, which found that these companies had engaged in anti-competitive agreements from 2010 to 2015.

The Commission's investigation revealed that Valve and the publishers—Bandai, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax—implemented territorial control measures that prevented users in lower-priced countries from purchasing games in higher-priced markets. The court ruled that this geo-blocking was not aimed at protecting copyright but rather at eliminating parallel imports and maintaining high profit margins.

In its judgment, the General Court dismissed Valve's appeal, affirming that the Commission had sufficiently established the existence of collusive practices that harmed competition. The court also clarified the relationship between EU competition law and copyright, stating that copyright does not allow for practices that create artificial price differences across national markets, which contradicts the principles of the internal market.

Valve's arguments regarding potential pro-competitive effects of geo-blocking were also rejected, reinforcing the court's stance on the harmful nature of the collusion. The ruling emphasizes the importance of maintaining competition and preventing market partitioning within the EU.