Million-dollar fine: Sony lands in the crosshairs of the French antitrust authorities because of PS4 controllers

PlayStation 4 owners who need a new controller can choose from three different options. Firstly, there is Sony's own PS4 gamepad, the Dual Shock 4, which is the most expensive, but experience has shown that it works best. Secondly, there are the controllers from manufacturers who are allowed to produce under the license of the Sony Group and these are somewhat cheaper. Thirdly, there are the PS4 controllers from third-party suppliers who do not have a Sony license, which have caused repeated problems in the past. As is now clear, Sony is not entirely innocent.

The company that complained about Sony's business practices and thus set the investigation in motion is Subsonic, a French manufacturer of gaming controllers. Subsonic is known among Playstation fans for its particularly affordable PS4 gamepads, among other products. The French company accused Sony of deliberately ensuring that license-free PS4 controllers do not work well. As a result, the French antitrust authorities conducted an investigation and subsequently ordered the Japanese electronics group to pay a hefty fine of millions of euros for two unfair business practices.

Firstly, Sony is accused of having taking technical measures to impair the functionality of third-party controllers under the guise of anti-counterfeiting since November 2015. In the past, this led to the gamepads switching off when the PlayStation was updated. According to the French antitrust authorities, the aim of combating counterfeiting is legitimate, but the measures taken were deemed disproportionate as they affected all unlicensed controllers without exception.

The second accusation for which Sony was convicted is its opaque licensing policy. As part of their investigation, the French antritrust authorities found that Sony deliberately made access to the OLP partnership program more difficult for manufacturers who applied for it, even though it was the only way for third parties to obtain official licenses in order to bring PS4-compatible control devices onto the market.

For these two instances of malpractice, the French antitrust agency slapped Sony with a fine of 13,527,000 euros (equivalent to around $14,800,000) on December 20, 2023. Although it is unlikely that the electrical giant will experience financial difficulties as a result, the ruling nevertheless may set a precedent for further lawsuits. Whether third-party PlayStation controllers will actually work better in the future remains to be seen.