Valve is now facing a £656 million lawsuit in Britain. The lawsuit alleges that Valve prevents publishers from selling their games more cheaply or earlier on rival platforms.
Valve had attempted to have the courts dismiss the lawsuit after it was first filed back in 2024. According to the BBC, Valve's push to have the lawsuit dismiss has failed as a judge has given the greenlight to say that the case against Valve may continue. The lawsuit is being led by lawyer Vicki Shotbolt on behalf of the 14 million Steam users throughout the United Kingdom.
Shotbolt claims that Valve, by way of Steam, violates UK's "anti-competitive prices" law. Shotbolt also claims that Valve engages in "unfair trading conditions that prevent or hinder others from competing with them." Specifically, Shotbolt claims that Valve demands that games sold on Steam not be made available at a permanently lower price on rival stores. Shotbolt also alleges that once you buy a game on Steam, you can only buy additional content for that game (DLC, expansion, cosmetics, etc.) through Steam. Shotbolt says that this allows Valve to "hold a dominant position in the PC gaming market" and, in turn Valve "may have used this position in ways that violet UK competition law."
On January 26, 2026, Valve filed an objection to the claims and attempted to have the case thrown out. As part of their appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, Valve says that Shotbolt "had not put forward an adequate methodology," and a bunch of other nitpicky stuff. Basically, Valve tried to have the lawsuit dismissed because it was a bit too broad and it wasn't clear who exactly all could be included in the lawsuit.
Shotbolt proposed some revisions to their claim, which was apparently enough to have the judge reject Valve's challenge.
As with pretty much all class-action lawsuits (or "collective action claim" as they're known in the UK), users in the United Kingdom who want no part of this can opt-out soon. If you are in the UK and use Steam and don't opt-out when the time comes, you will be considered a willing participant in the class-action lawsuit against Valve.
Should Shotbolt win, those who did not opt-out of the lawsuit will be entitled to some money. It certainly won't be a lot of money that you get once you factor in things like legal fees and all that good stuff, but it'll be something. As noted, the claim is seeking £656 million, which is about $907 million USD.
