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French Court Allows the Resale of Steam Titles

Valve intends to lodge an appeal against the decision.

By Saelanna Wed 25 Sep, 2019 1:55 PM
Since December 2015, a French consumer group called UFC-Que Choisir, has been in a legal battle with Valve, alleging that Steam’s subscriber agreement is “anti-consumer”. The case reached a major milestone earlier this month when the high court in France ruled against Valve by making it legal for its European customers to resell games in their Steam libraries on the platform’s digital storefront.

The ban on reselling your games has always been one of the downsides of having a digital, as opposed to a physical, library of games. There is no getting around the fact that once you’ve bought the game you’re stuck with it, even though the reselling of purchased games is legal in the European Union. As part of its defence, Valve argued that Steam was a subscription service and, as such, they were well within their rights to have the reselling ban as part of their terms and conditions. This defence was rejected in counterarguments submitted stating that Steam doesn’t sell games as part of a subscription package, it sells software licences, and the policy of banning the resale of titles bought via this platform is in contravention of the European Union’s Copyright Directive of 2001 and the Computer Programs Directive of 2009.

The ruling did, however, clarify that the reselling of games and content would apply to individual copies of games only and not duplicates. Valve was also given three months to implement the changes and update their terms of service.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Valve intends to appeal this decision so nothing will be changing for consumers until all the legal processes have run their course. Furthermore, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) has stated that the French court ruling goes against the already established EU case law relating to digital copies. So those of us with games gathering virtual dust in the darkest recesses of our Steam libraries will have to wait a little longer before we can start the big clear out.

What did you think of this article? Are you happy about the outcome of the court? Let us know by posting below!

WRITTEN BY Saelanna - mary.harvey@ufplanets.com
EDITED BY Infinity
5 Comments
Wed 25 Sep, 2019 5:25 PM
IMO the best way they can impliment this from their perspective is by having games being sold via Steam wallet money, this keeps the games, and the money within the closed platform. This means people can sell their games through Steam, and get wallet money to buy games.
Wed 25 Sep, 2019 9:31 PM
IMO the best way they can impliment this from their perspective is by having games being sold via Steam wallet money, this keeps the games, and the money within the closed platform. This means people can sell their games through Steam, and get wallet money to buy games.
Yes that sounds reasonable I think.

Allowing them to be sold for real cash would open up all kinds of hell once certain sites (which we shall not mention) got wind of it. At least keeping it all "in-house" so to speak means it can allow people to sell games they don't want but then get new ones from a controlled source and everything is wrapped up in a single protected system. Less chance for exploitation this way.
A huge number of games are on Steam anyway so it is not like you are limited by only getting credits/steam money etc.
Thu 26 Sep, 2019 2:18 PM
The balance of your Steam Wallet doesn't count as money, it's store credit.

That allows them to claim the digital goods being exchanged on the Steam Community Market have no monetary value, which is important because Valve wants to avoid a broad swath of strict national and international regulations and oversight. The most powerful agencies watching are the tax agencies - the government always wants their cut.

Simply putting games onto their existing Steam Community Market isn't going to be sufficient for compliance, much like how the Steam Wallet being the only option for a refund wouldn't have been sufficient back when that was before the courts.
Thu 26 Sep, 2019 3:21 PM
Simply putting games onto their existing Steam Community Market isn't going to be sufficient for compliance, much like how the Steam Wallet being the only option for a refund wouldn't have been sufficient back when that was before the courts.
Unfortunatly, it might be the only option in this case, as oppose to refunds. Allowing games on Steam to be sold second hand for real cash opens up a real possibility of money laundering, you could buy a game with dirty money, and sell it on multiple times, and clean the money. Then there are problems with overseas tax, and the price differences for Steam games, as well as regional limitations for certain games. There are things patched out in Germany that aren't the UK for example.

Trading digital goods for real money has a unique set of problems, which isn't faced by selling a physcial item.
Thu 26 Sep, 2019 8:50 PM
It's not an option. If real money isn't involved, then it wouldn't count as a resale.

AML/CTF regulations and agencies are actually what I specifically had in mind when I wrote my comment. The issues around not-yet-regulated digital markets like this was literally one of the things we covered in my financial crimes analysis certification last year. I'm not familiar with the specifics about what the tax agencies intend, only that they'll be the ones taking the lead on these transactions.

We're still struggling to catch up with gift cards, so the these digital markets are probably safe from regulatory oversight for some time yet.