Are you a victim of “Sony tax?” Company gets sued for selling pricier digital games

Some PlayStation users have been overpaying for their games for years.

Sony is getting sued by PlayStation users in the Netherlands. The class action lawsuit was brought due to the company's monopolistic practices.

The “Fair PlayStation” campaign, launched in February, revealed that, on average, consumers pay 47% more for digital versions of the same game on a physical disc, “while Sony's distribution costs are actually lower."

Stichting Massaschade & Consument, an organization that specializes in collective lawsuits, said that Sony has been using its leading position for more than 10 years. During this time, the company denied “other potential app stores access to the PlayStation.”

The statement also reveals that “at least 1.7 million Dutch PlayStation owners pay too much for digital games and in-game content.”

This means that since 2013, Dutch gamers have spent €435 million ($505 million) more than they should have, according to Tom’s Hardware.

New PlayStation 5 games cost around $70 in the US, with a yearly PlayStation Plus Essential subscription costing $80. Sony's shift to digital-only versions of games allows the company to control game pricing, which impacts sellers of physical games, reducing their competition. In the future, this could lead to fewer game choices and higher prices.

We previously reported on Sony raising PlayStation 5 prices five years after its original launch. This was an unexpected move from the company, since the standard practice in this case is to reduce the price of older consoles when a new device is released.