Many players — including me — got a bit of a jump scare Thursday evening while playing games on Steam in the form of a pop-up that said Valve updated the Steam Subscriber Agreement. Like most people, I clicked the checkbox, accepted the changes, and tried to go back to my game.
Looking back, though, this update is kind of a big deal, as Valve has removed its forced arbitration clause. This means that it’s now easier than ever to sue the company, and the changes have been implemented immediately.
Forced arbitration, put simply, means that if you file a complaint against a company, you’ll instead be put into arbitration — where a third party that will decide what to do with your lawsuit — instead of going to court with a judge or jury. These kinds of clauses are actually quite common in the service agreements for larger companies, and can be a problem for consumers who want to hold companies accountable for wrongdoing by halting any legal progress in its tracks. So this is a big win for Valve users.
“The updates affect your legal rights,” the Valve message read. “They include changes to how disputes and claims between you and Valve are resolved … and require all claims and disputes to proceed in court and not in arbitration.”
The agreement notes that most problems should still go through Steam support, but if the complaints have to go further, they’ll “go forward in court instead of arbitration.” It’s worth mentioning that, like in most cases, Valve can still take legal action against intellectual property or copyright violations.
While the PC gaming platform company didn’t give a reason for the change, 404 Media refers to a class-action lawsuitn that accuses Valve of monopolistic behavior in this retail space that lets it “charge exorbitant fees and maintain market dominance not because it built a superior games store.” The plaintiffs, based on the old subscriber agreement, went to forced arbitration first.
Other recent Valve updates include making it easier than ever to share games in your catalog with members of your Steam family, user review improvements, and a beta native game recording feature.
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