The European Union has confirmed it cannot prevent Sony from scrapping physical discs, stating “companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit”.

Sony’s shocking decision to end all physical media on PlayStation, including for games not published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was announced on 1st July. All releases from January 2028 onwards will be digital-only, including code-in-the-box-style options at retail.

In response to the news, the Don’t Kill the Disc Change.org petition quickly picked up traction, amassing over 286,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Despite this, the EU’s commissioner for consumer protection, Michael McGrath, has admitted that not much can be done at an EU level to save the discs for customers, citing “commercial and contractual freedoms”.

As spotted by the Irish Mirror, McGrath, speaking in Strasbourg’s European Parliament to reporters, said: “It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms, and companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit, provided that consumer rights are fully protected in line with national and EU law.

“At this time, we did have to consider a European citizens initiative on this question of whether games should continue to be available after a new edition of the game has been brought forward.”

The wide-reaching ramifications for the industry at large are part of the petition’s core thesis, which calls out Sony’s 2013 Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video as mocking something the company would become just 13 years later.