Recently, Sony was slapped with a fine by the French Antitrust regulator after it abused its market position in the supply of PlayStation 4 controllers. The Autorité de la Concurrence announced the fine last month (via the CPI), which was caused by two main violations.
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Sony fined €13.5M
First, it was stated that Sony implemented technical measures in 2015 to combat counterfeiting, which inadvertently affected the functioning of third-party controllers, resulting in disconnects during system updates.
Second, competing companies are precluded from joining the PlayStation licensing program, and access is only granted through the Sony partnership program. The Autorité de la Concurrence said that Sony refused to communicate program access criteria to manufacturers upon request, and stated that the criteria were applied at Sony’s discretion.
Sony applied the criteria judiciously, even though access to the program was the only way to avoid disconnection.
According to the party, these practices significantly damage the brand image of third-party manufacturers and hinder their market expansion. Sony has not publicly responded to the fine.
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