Steam Changes to the Subscriber Agreeement

store.steampowered.com

11 points·zdw··5 comments

> Valve has updated the Steam Subscriber Agreement. The updates affect your legal rights, including how disputes and claims between you and Valve are resolved. Among other things, the new dispute resolution provisions in Section 10 require that all disputes and claims proceed in court and not in arbitration. Please review carefully.

They put this bit front and center and it seems like a pretty big statement given that arbitration is so ubiquitous in these policies. Of course, I’m not an attorney so I’m curious to hear more informed opinions.

Does court cost more than arbitration for a plaintiff seeking something from Steam?

My understanding is that a court case is more likely to succeed for the plaintiff but that’s what I hear about about more abusive companies; many companies prefer arbitration because they can choose arbitrators who tend to favor the business. That’s why I’m curious about Valve’s change here.

I have no idea about costs other than I hear that small claims court is reasonably affordable. There are also attorney costs, of course, but I think you’d hire an attorney for arbitration anyway.

Edit:

FMecha pointed out Valve v. Zaiger and, sure enough:

> Valve says that Zaiger has “targeted Valve and Steam users . . . because the arbitration clause in the SSA is ‘favorable' to Steam users in that Valve agrees to pay the fees and costs associated with arbitration.”

https://casetext.com/case/valve-corp-v-zaiger-llc

They also removed the class action waiver.

I'm cynical so I'm wondering how the government forced them to do this, but then again Steam is so often one of the only "Good Guys" in a notoriously scummy industry.

Apparently this is the aftermath of Valve v. Zaiger case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com