Tag results for Legal Stuff
German consumer organisation VZBV have been making threatening gestures in Valve’s general direction since September, when they first issued the Steam guardians with a cease and desist order. At the crux of the issue was an EULA update last year which forbad the use of any third-party software or tools which might enable the resale of Steam games - and while Valve proposed changes that temporarily appeased the German federation, the VZBV have decided that those measures haven’t been enough. As such, they’ve decreed their intention to sue Valve in Berlin on the behalf of Steam’s EU consumers.
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It’s rare that 4Chan press a leading industry figure on their failures to preserve user rights, but when they mood takes them they do it right. /v/ visited Valve recently to meet Gabe Newell on his 50th birthday, and followed up musings on father Valve’s beard with a grilling about the change in Steam’s terms of service that left users unable to sue via class action lawsuits.Read and Comment
About two months ago, Valve changed Steam’s terms of service. There was no skulking about, and everybody was made as well-informed as they could possibly be, because Valve are good at dealing with their customers. But the crux of it was that those same customers would no longer be able to bring class action lawsuits against the company - that is, as a group of complainants or with the help of a consumer organisation, rather than as individuals.
Not everybody’s been happy about this. Least of all the consumer organisations, one of which is acting on behalf of EU consumers in dragging Valve to court, should they fail to respond to a desist order before October 10th.Read and Comment
Valve have updated their Steam Subscriber Agreement, introducing "a new dispute resolution process" alongside some EU-specific amendments to reflect the opening of a new Valve office in Luxembourg. Interestingly, these new dispute resolution terms disallow any class actions against the publisher - that is, customers with grievances must file their suits individually, rather than as part of a (more powerful) group or consumer organisation. Valve are at least being transparent about blocking this legitimate legal avenue, perhaps understanding the negative press that's surrounded similar provisions made by other companies such as Sony. Hmm, I had no plans to launch a class action against Valve in the near future, but it was nice to know that I could if I had to.Read and Comment
