Sony filed again in class action lawsuit

Another class action lawsuit was filed against Sony in a California court. The plaintiffs accuse the corporation of banning the sale of codes that allow activating games without purchasing a copy from the PS Store. The claimants argue that it is Sony's policy to discourage retailers from selling digital game codes on their own, thereby “barring” users from saving.

Cendejas's lawsuit against Sony Interactive Entertainment was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and follows a separate lawsuit from Cacccuri against Sony, which essentially claims the same.

As a reminder, prior to April 1, 2019, digital games from the PlayStation Store could be purchased in retail stores using code cards, allowing retailers to set prices and list them for sale. However, this option no longer works. Note that Microsoft continues to allow retailers to sell code cards for Xbox systems.

According to the plaintiffs, Sony has limited the market to a single source for purchasing any digital content for its consoles. This forces players to "pay a higher price than in a free and unrestricted competitive retail market." The lawsuit notes that in the two years since the ban on the sale of codes, gamers have overpaid Sony billions of dollars.

Interestingly, this isn't the first class action lawsuit against Sony. The corporation was sued last month for monopolizing digital sales of PlayStation games.