Autorite de la Concurrence, France’s antitrust regulator, has fined Sony 13.5 million euros after it was deemed to have abused its market position for the supply of PS4 controllers.
Speaking last month, the regulator pinned the fine on two infractions, the first of which is that Sony implemented technical measures in 2015 to combat counterfeiting, inadvertently affecting the functioning of third-party controllers.
It also added that rival companies were impeded from joining PlayStation’s licensing program, which is granted only through the format holder’s PlayStation partnership program.
Sony applied the criteria in a discretionary manner, even though access to the program was the only way to avoid disconnections.
The regular added that it discovered Sony had refused to communicate the program access criteria to manufacturers upon request, stating the criteria were applied at the company’s decoration.
[Source – VGC]