French consumer group, UFC-Que Choisir, has brought a lawsuit against Valve for the right to resell Steam games. It appears that the group is banking on relying on precedent set by an earlier ruling by the European Court of Justice that allowed the resale of software licensed from Oracle.
The argument is that reselling games is an integral part of the video game experience, as is generally done with games on physical discs. It should be noted that there is no law against reselling games, and the goal of the lawsuit is to compel Valve to implement the feature in Steam.
While this looks like an interesting move, it isn’t the first time that Valve has faced the issue. A Berlin court ruled in favour of Valve back in 2014 when a similar suit was brought before the courts in Germany. The ruling is not binding on French courts, but the nature of the European Union means that it could be used to influence the decision of the judges.
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Resale capability is not the only thing that UFC-Que Choisir is looking for with its lawsuit. The group is also looking to make Steam refund users money in their Steam wallet should they want to close their accounts. It isn’t entirely a terrible idea as some accounts accumulate quite a bit of funds after selling items on the community marketplace; especially if the group gets what they want with the reselling of games.
This could spell substantial changes to Steam should the French courts rule in favour of the consumer group. We wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of selling unused or old games; especially if it meant clearing out all those games bought on impulse and never played.
[Source: Ars Technica]
