The Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of a settlement lodged against Sony by lead plaintiff Agustin Caccuri in 2023, which accused the PlayStation developer and manufacturer of monopolizing the market by limiting third-party digital sales on its platforms. As part of the preliminary settlement, Sony will have to pay roughly $7.8 million to “all persons in the United States” who purchased specific digital games through PSN from April 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023.
The preliminary settlement was approved on April 8 last month and formally announced by Saveri Law Firm, LLP on April 29. In case you’re confused, this is unrelated to the ongoing “PlayStation You Owe Us” collective proceedings claim issued against Sony in 2022. This is the “Caccuri, et al. v. Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC” civil case, which began on May 7, 2021.
The settlement was previously denied in July 2025 for several reasons, including a failure to “provide an estimated recovery or a range of potential recovery for class members,” even though Sony had already agreed to settlement terms. Although the settlement has now been preliminarily approved, the Northern District of California has scheduled a “Fairness Hearing” on October 15, 2026. The settlement will only be fully approved once the Fairness Hearing concludes that the proposed settlement is “fair, reasonable, and adequate to the Settlement Class.”
For context, the $7.8 million settlement appears to apply only to “game-specific vouchers” that could be purchased through retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart. While the proposed settlement also states that it applies to “other third-party retailers,” it would appear, based on the language in the court document, that this only applies to digital codes that you could purchase from physical locations, so it seems that it wouldn’t apply to games purchased via websites (like, for example, Loaded).
A list of eligible titles is available on the PSN Digital Games Settlement website. However, it seems the process will be automatic, as the preliminary approval states that the “credits” will be awarded by “direct notification through the email addresses associated with Settlement Class members’ PlayStation accounts.”
About the Author
