{"id":1947532,"date":"2026-05-21T16:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947532"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:19:07","slug":"playstations-dynamic-pricing-experiment-and-sonys-lack-of-transparency-about-it-reportedly-might-violate-european-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947532","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation&#8217;s dynamic pricing experiment, and Sony&#8217;s lack of transparency about it, reportedly might violate European law"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">PlayStation&#8217;s dynamic pricing experiment, and Sony&#8217;s lack of transparency about it, reportedly might violate European law<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;In the worst case, they could face a fine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/ps6-price-date.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"PlayStation symbol over a calendar and some money.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"ps6-price-date.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-21T16:19:07+00:00\">May 21, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-dynamic-pricing-sony-transparency-eu-law?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          1 comment<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Sony&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-tests-dynamic-pricing-for-digital-games\">recent dynamic pricing experiment on the PlayStation Store<\/a>, which offers different game prices to different people, might violate European law, a new report has found.<\/p>\n<p>Danish publication <a href=\"https:\/\/arkaden.dk\/features\/playstations-skjulte-prisstunt-kritiseres-af-eksperter-lever-ikke-op-til-eu-regler\/\">Arkaden<\/a> heard from several experts in the field about how Sony&#8217;s lack of transparency regarding its pricing experiments seemed to fall outside of what&#8217;s currently legally allowed in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the move seems to contravene <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX%3A02011L0083-20220528\">EU Directive 2011\/83\/EU<\/a>. This states that if a company is using personalised pricing then it must communicate this fact to an end user &#8220;in a clear and comprehensible manner&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a caveat here. Strictly speaking, Sony might not be engaging in personalised pricing because it&#8217;s &#8220;segmenting&#8221; prices in other, undisclosed ways, the report said. One of these seems to be adjusting prices for logged-in PlayStation users versus logged-out users, but the other ways prices are being adjusted are harder to categorise.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Dr. Peter Rott &#8211; co-author of an EU study on personalised pricing and professor of law at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg &#8211; said this doesn&#8217;t exempt Sony from this EU legislation. &#8220;I would think that Article 6(1)(ea) of the Consumer Rights Directive still applies,&#8221; he told Arkaden (in a translation kindly offered by the article&#8217;s author, Jakob Hansen).<\/p>\n<p>Jan Trzaskowski, a professor of law at Aalborg University &#8211; who&#8217;s studied areas such as consumer protection, data regulation and IT law for 30 years &#8211; seemed to agree. &#8220;Fundamentally, the problem is that you are offered a specific price because of who you are,&#8221; Trazaskowski said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you have been tracked across various platforms or whether you have been placed in a segment. The intent of the legislation favours a broad interpretation of automated decision-making in this context.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting here that while it sounds odious, automated personalised pricing isn&#8217;t a new phenomenon, though it&#8217;s on the rise. Nor is it exclusive to Sony and PlayStation in the gaming space. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.windowscentral.com\/xbox-microsoft-store-just-for-you-discounts\">Microsoft has used personalised prices on Xbox since 2022<\/a>, with the crucial difference being that Microsoft tells you this is the case, offering the deals in a &#8220;Just for You&#8221; section.<\/p>\n<p>That Sony is using personalised pricing isn&#8217;t the problem, then, legally speaking. The problem is not disclosing it upfront. But Sony&#8217;s actions may also contravene <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/HTML\/?uri=CELEX:02005L0029-20220528\">another EU Directive, 2005\/29\/EC<\/a>, which states &#8220;a commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading&#8221; if it &#8220;omits material information that the average consumer needs according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is absolutely no case law on this,&#8221; Dr Rott stated, &#8220;but I would still argue that it is &#8216;material information&#8217; in the terms of that provision whether or not I might be the random victim of price differentiation between testing groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sony did not respond to Arkaden&#8217;s request for comment about the experts&#8217; assessments, and because this is such a new area of legislation, any legal action would break new ground. And, as the report noted, even if Sony were found to have broken EU consumer law, it probably wouldn&#8217;t have major consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the worst case, they could face a fine,&#8221; said Christian Bergqvist, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. &#8220;But that won&#8217;t make much difference to a company of Sony&#8217;s size. There may, however, also be competition law aspects to the case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, this isn&#8217;t happening in a vacuum. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/sony-fighting-27-billion-uk-lawsuit-over-playstation-store-prices-2026-03-10\/\">Sony is currently facing a near \u00a32bn lawsuit in the UK<\/a> regarding the company&#8217;s alleged monopoly on digital PlayStation Store pricing and inflated game prices there. Taking a cut of 30 percent used to be standard practice for a platform holder, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/fortnite-app-store-epic-apple-court\">as Epic scores another victory over Apple<\/a> in this regard, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/policy\/889252\/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google\">Google lowers its take to around 20 percent<\/a>, the pressure is on Sony to make a change.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Sony&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-tests-dynamic-pricing-for-digital-games\">recent dynamic pricing experiment on the PlayStation Store<\/a>, which offers different game prices to different people, might violate European law, a new report has found.<\/p>\n<p>Danish publication <a href=\"https:\/\/arkaden.dk\/features\/playstations-skjulte-prisstunt-kritiseres-af-eksperter-lever-ikke-op-til-eu-regler\/\">Arkaden<\/a> heard from several experts in the field about how Sony&#8217;s lack of transparency regarding its pricing experiments seemed to fall outside of what&#8217;s currently legally allowed in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the move seems to contravene <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX%3A02011L0083-20220528\">EU Directive 2011\/83\/EU<\/a>. This states that if a company is using personalised pricing then it must communicate this fact to an end user &#8220;in a clear and comprehensible manner&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a caveat here. Strictly speaking, Sony might not be engaging in personalised pricing because it&#8217;s &#8220;segmenting&#8221; prices in other, undisclosed ways, the report said. One of these seems to be adjusting prices for logged-in PlayStation users versus logged-out users, but the other ways prices are being adjusted are harder to categorise.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Dr. Peter Rott &#8211; co-author of an EU study on personalised pricing and professor of law at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg &#8211; said this doesn&#8217;t exempt Sony from this EU legislation. &#8220;I would think that Article 6(1)(ea) of the Consumer Rights Directive still applies,&#8221; he told Arkaden (in a translation kindly offered by the article&#8217;s author, Jakob Hansen).<\/p>\n<p>Jan Trzaskowski, a professor of law at Aalborg University &#8211; who&#8217;s studied areas such as consumer protection, data regulation and IT law for 30 years &#8211; seemed to agree. &#8220;Fundamentally, the problem is that you are offered a specific price because of who you are,&#8221; Trazaskowski said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you have been tracked across various platforms or whether you have been placed in a segment. The intent of the legislation favours a broad interpretation of automated decision-making in this context.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting here that while it sounds odious, automated personalised pricing isn&#8217;t a new phenomenon, though it&#8217;s on the rise. Nor is it exclusive to Sony and PlayStation in the gaming space. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.windowscentral.com\/xbox-microsoft-store-just-for-you-discounts\">Microsoft has used personalised prices on Xbox since 2022<\/a>, with the crucial difference being that Microsoft tells you this is the case, offering the deals in a &#8220;Just for You&#8221; section.<\/p>\n<p>That Sony is using personalised pricing isn&#8217;t the problem, then, legally speaking. The problem is not disclosing it upfront. But Sony&#8217;s actions may also contravene <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/HTML\/?uri=CELEX:02005L0029-20220528\">another EU Directive, 2005\/29\/EC<\/a>, which states &#8220;a commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading&#8221; if it &#8220;omits material information that the average consumer needs according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is absolutely no case law on this,&#8221; Dr Rott stated, &#8220;but I would still argue that it is &#8216;material information&#8217; in the terms of that provision whether or not I might be the random victim of price differentiation between testing groups.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sony did not respond to Arkaden&#8217;s request for comment about the experts&#8217; assessments, and because this is such a new area of legislation, any legal action would break new ground. And, as the report noted, even if Sony were found to have broken EU consumer law, it probably wouldn&#8217;t have major consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the worst case, they could face a fine,&#8221; said Christian Bergqvist, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. &#8220;But that won&#8217;t make much difference to a company of Sony&#8217;s size. There may, however, also be competition law aspects to the case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, this isn&#8217;t happening in a vacuum. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/sony-fighting-27-billion-uk-lawsuit-over-playstation-store-prices-2026-03-10\/\">Sony is currently facing a near \u00a32bn lawsuit in the UK<\/a> regarding the company&#8217;s alleged monopoly on digital PlayStation Store pricing and inflated game prices there. Taking a cut of 30 percent used to be standard practice for a platform holder, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/fortnite-app-store-epic-apple-court\">as Epic scores another victory over Apple<\/a> in this regard, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/policy\/889252\/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google\">Google lowers its take to around 20 percent<\/a>, the pressure is on Sony to make a change.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News PlayStation&#8217;s dynamic pricing experiment, and Sony&#8217;s lack of transparency about it, reportedly might violate European law &#8220;In the worst case, they could face a fine.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on May 21, 2026 1 comment Sony&#8217;s recent dynamic pricing experiment on the PlayStation Store, which offers different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1947532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}