A Dutch Class Action Gains A Louder Backer
Stop Killing Games, the advocacy group known for pushing publishers to keep purchased games playable after support ends, announced on 10 August 2026 that it is backing a Dutch class-action lawsuit against Sony over PlayStation Store pricing practices. The underlying case was filed in February 2025 by Stichting Massaschade & Consument, a Dutch foundation that organizes consumer claims, using the Netherlands' WAMCA collective-action mechanism.
A jurisdiction hearing took place on 29 June 2026, and a ruling on jurisdiction is still pending as of this writing. No court has yet decided whether the case can proceed to its merits, let alone whether Sony did anything wrong.
What The Case Covers, By The Numbers
The lawsuit covers roughly 1.7 million Dutch PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 owners who bought games or content on the PlayStation Store since 29 November 2013, the day the PS4 launched in the Netherlands.
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Owners covered | about 1.7 million Dutch PS4/PS5 owners |
| Damages sought | more than EUR 400 million |
| Purchases covered since | 29 November 2013 (Dutch PS4 launch) |
| Case filed | February 2025 |
| Jurisdiction hearing | 29 June 2026 |
| Ruling on jurisdiction | pending |
| Digital vs physical price gap cited | 47 percent more expensive on average |
Stop Killing Games' announcement on 10 August 2026 added public backing to a case that had already been working through the Dutch courts for a year and a half.
The 47 Percent Number Is The Real Argument
An economic study underpinning the lawsuit found that digital PlayStation games cost 47 percent more on average than equivalent physical copies, according to reporting from Kotaku and GamesRadar+.
The plaintiffs argue that gap reflects Sony's total control over PlayStation Store pricing as a closed, single-storefront digital marketplace, sometimes called a platform tax: without a competing digital storefront on PlayStation hardware, Sony can set digital prices without the direct competitive pressure that pushes down physical retail prices. That number matters well beyond this one lawsuit. Any publisher or developer selling exclusively through a single closed storefront, on PlayStation or any other console, is looking at the same structural conditions the study describes, and a 47 percent gap is now a concrete, sourced figure that pricing teams and regulators can both point to.
A Test Case For How The EU Handles Platform Holders
This lawsuit is also a genuine test of the Dutch WAMCA collective-action mechanism used against a platform holder rather than a conventional retailer, independent of how the underlying pricing claim against Sony is eventually decided.
WAMCA lets a qualifying foundation bring a single collective claim on behalf of a defined group of consumers, rather than requiring thousands of individual Dutch PlayStation owners to sue separately, and it has mostly been used against companies selling physical goods or services rather than digital marketplace operators. How the Dutch courts eventually rule on jurisdiction, and later on the merits if the case proceeds, will be watched as a signal for how EU consumer-protection litigation against digital marketplaces develops more broadly, beyond this one dispute with Sony.
What This Means For Sony, For Now
Sony has not been found liable for anything in this case, and the jurisdiction ruling that would let the claim move forward at all is still outstanding as of this writing.
What has changed is visibility: an advocacy group with an existing platform-accountability audience is now publicly attached to the case, and the 47 percent pricing-gap figure has a second life as an argument other plaintiffs, regulators or competitors could reuse against any closed digital storefront, on PlayStation or elsewhere.
Read next: Sony Erased an Indie Studio's Catalog With No Reason | All Three Console Makers Raised Prices In 2026
