I don't get why @Empire and @skyfire are being so negative about this. What Valve and the other companies listed were doing was blocking game codes purchased in one part of the EU from being used in another parts of the EU. Remember, the all of Europe is part of the PAL region, so there should be region blocking for software nor hardware. These companies did this to ensure that people were paying the highest price for those games across the whole continent no what matter what that country's indigenous market, economic status and local law dictates as fair, which is incredibly shady and purpose built to rip people off. As gamers, we should be praising them for taking this action.
Quick reminder, as a mod', this is not the politics sub-forum, so please avoid the political discussion. You wanna talk politics, do so on the correct part of the forum.