France: Sony offers concessions in antitrust probe

In the context of a litigation procedure opened before the Autorité, Sony offered commitments to make its licensing policy more transparent to third parties wishing to manufacture and market compatible controllers with the Playstation 4 on the French market, the French regulator reported. 

The Playstation 4 console, launched in November 2013, is the best-selling home console in France and Europe.

In order to play the games available on this console, players use controllers compatible with the console.

In their preliminary assessment, the investigation services found that, as of November 2015, Sony has deployed a device aiming at fighting against counterfeit controllers.

In response to these competition concerns, Sony offers to establish a set of objective criteria and technical and quality standards (or to clarify existing ones if necessary), to which any interested third party must comply in order to participate in the official program license granting of compatible controllers with the Playstation 4 console on the French market, and to apply them on a non-discriminatory basis.

Full Content: Autorite de la Concurrence

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