This is a pretty common tactic in retail spaces. Walmart also won’t let you sell the same product that you’ve contracted to put on their shelves elsewhere for cheaper.
The general idea is that you are benefitting from Walmart’s market dominance for exposure and advertising. You can’t get that benefit and then encourage consumers to buy it elsewhere by listing it for cheaper than Walmart sells it for.
You can agree or disagree with that approach, but it’s not unique to Steam and it’s so far generally been held up as reasonable.
Except the stores are the ones who set the prices. The supplier can offer a suggested retail price, but stores are not usually beholden to those, if they are willing to cut into their own margin.
This is a pretty common tactic in retail spaces. Walmart also won’t let you sell the same product that you’ve contracted to put on their shelves elsewhere for cheaper.
The general idea is that you are benefitting from Walmart’s market dominance for exposure and advertising. You can’t get that benefit and then encourage consumers to buy it elsewhere by listing it for cheaper than Walmart sells it for.
You can agree or disagree with that approach, but it’s not unique to Steam and it’s so far generally been held up as reasonable.
Except the stores are the ones who set the prices. The supplier can offer a suggested retail price, but stores are not usually beholden to those, if they are willing to cut into their own margin.