Developer Valve faces £ 656-million lawsuit in United Kingdom

27 January 2026

Bad news for Valve, the studio behind iconic games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2. The British authorities have permitted a lawsuit against the company to continue as the developer is being accused of abuse of power via game platform Steam. The lawyers who brought the case to court back in 2024 represent children’s welfare advocate Vicki Shotbolt, who in turn decided to sue on behalf of up to fourteen (14) million people in the United Kingdom who bought games or other content through Steam and other platforms where Valve titles are available. Valve attempted to get the suit dismissed, but the Competition Appeal Tribunal has declared that request unfounded. It will be interesting to see what this developing situation will mean for Valve, their titles and esports in the UK overall.

Claim worth £ 656 million

The reason we are seeing a potential impact on the wider British esports scene is the size of the claim currently aimed at Valve. The opposition lawyers are claiming no less than £ 656 million in damages for the roughly 14 million people they represent. It is important to note though, that the OK from the Competition Appeal Tribunal says nothing about the chances of success of the claim. It only confirms that lawsuit is legally valid and grounded. This is a usual process when it comes to submitting claims in the United Kingdom.
The suit was brought to court back in 2024, when the claimant accused Valve of three types of abuse of power:

• They allege that Valve imposes unfair conditions on publishers with the goal of preventing them from selling products cheaply or earlier on rival platforms to Steam. Steam is owned by Valve, much like the iOS Store is owned by Apple, for example.

• They allege that Valve “locks in” players to make (or force) players to make purchases via Steam by making those purchases required to play a game that has been previously bought via Steam.

• They allege that the above allows Valve to charge commissions of up to 30% on every purchase, which the lawyers claim is “unfair and excessive”.

What is Steam?

The more experienced gamers and esports fans can probably skip this part, but we feel that a quick introduction of Steam is useful, especially when it comes to understanding the current massive lawsuit against Valve in the United Kingdom.

Steam is a digital storefront and delivery platform that was launched by Valve in 2002. Initially, the platform only offered Valve games, which players could find, download and play there. In order to play Half-Life 2, for example, players were required to install Steam first. As time went on though, Valve started offering games from other publishers through Steam as well. Whenever one of those games was purchased, the developer would pocket a commission. Today, Steam controls about half of the digital PC games market and generates a major part of Valve’s annual revenue. It is the most-used gaming platform in the United Kingdom.