digital distribution systems in Europe should it be upheld. In August 2016, BT Group filed a lawsuit against Valve stating that Steam's client infringes on four of their patents, which they stated were used within Steam's Library, Chat, Messaging, and Broadcasting services. In 2017, the European Commission began investigating Valve and five other publishers—Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax Media—for anti-competitive practices, specifically the use of geo-blocking through the Steam storefront and Steam product keys to prevent access to software to citizens of certain countries within the European Economic Area. Such practices would be against the Digital Single Market initiative set by the European Union. The French gaming trade group, Syndicat National du Jeu Vidéo, noted that geo-blocking was a necessary feature to hinder inappropriate product key reselling, where a group buys a number of keys in regions where the cost is low, and then resells them into regions of much higher value to profit on the difference, outside of European oversight and tax laws. The Commission found, in January 2021, that Valve and co-defendants had violated antitrust rules of the European Union, issued combined fines of , and determined that these companies may be further liable to lawsuits from affected consumers. Valve had chosen "not to cooperate," and was fined , the most of any of the defendants. The publishers' fines, which amounted to more than €6 million, were reduced for cooperation with the EC. A January 2021 class-action lawsuit filed against Valve asserted that the company forced developers into entering a "most favored nation"-type of pricing contract to offer games on their storefront, which required the developers to price their games the same on other platforms as they did on Steam, thus stifling competition. Gamasutras Simon Carless analyzed the lawsuit and observed that Valve's terms only apply the resale of Steam keys and not games themselves, and thus the lawsuit may be without merit. A separate class-action lawsuit filed against Valve by Wolfire Games in April 2021 asserted that Steam is essentially a monopoly because, if developers want to sell games to personal computer users, they must sell through Steam, and that its 30% cut and its "most favored nation" pricing practices violate antitrust laws as a result of their position. Valve's response to the suit, filed in July 2021, sought to dismiss the complaint, stating that it "has no duty under antitrust