It’s because it’s cheaper to go to court with that class action lawsuit against them than it is to arbitrate with everyone affected
What are some other companies that are also very down to earth and not using every trick in the book to get away with stuff?
I come to think of the Proton foundation, but that’s just because I am a fanboy of theirs.
Steam is the very first company I’ve ever seen do this. I’ve been getting tons of emails from random fucking companies I’ve probably created an account with at some point in the past, and they ALL do this arbitration bullshit. Steam is the only fucking company that went the other direction, and I love them for this.
They seem to just keep getting better and better. When I scratched the lens on my index due to my own carelessness they replaced the headset for free. It’s been 5 years since I bought it and the controller strap broke last week and they sent me a free replacement. Any other company and I would have expected my only option to be buying a new controller.
For real I re-read it a few times and just got this shit eating grin on my face
Yeah was so happy when I read that. Lovely to see no forced arbitration or class action waiver bs
While I endorse the change, I believe it’s being made to avoid arbitration being weaponized by class action plaintiffs, which can be more costly than a class action lawsuit
Good, because forced arbitration is stupid anyway. We should weaponize it against scummy corporations.
It seems like its actually a giant fuck you to anyone who doesn’t live in King County, Washington State, USA.
Everything has to be done in King County Federal Court in Washington State.
That’s some big travel costs for people all over the world.
You’ve got to be absolutely loaded to sue a company as big as valve anyways. If you have enough money to sue valve then you easily have enough money to retain a local lawyer for it. Nobody is going to be taking an international corporation to small claims court.
That requirement mainly strikes me as a way for them to avoid having people judge shopping for some texan christofacist judge who would immediately rule against valve because they see videogames as the work of satan or something. Locking you into using a specific court in a fairly liberal state avoids that issue. With the current state of the US judicial system I don’t blame them for wanting to know that they’ll have a sane judge.
This is, ladies and gentlemen, called CONFIDENCE IN YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!!! You force arbitration when YOU KNOW you’re a piece of shit and fuck your customers whenever you have the chance.
Found in the comments on Steam. On one hand, I love that Steam is going in the opposite direction of literally every other company. On the other hand, it does seem like it’s not being done to be good guys.
It still was a nice surprise to see “btw no forced arbitration”.
Edit: I am too lazy to look for real sources, so take this with a grain of salt and go look for the real sources I’m too lazy to look for.
I can’t be the only one who recognizes that making people in foreign countries, like say, Austria in Europe, have to file this is in King County Courts in Seattle seems a little fucking dubious. I say this as a Washington State resident. Because it’s super easy for me to commute to Seattle to sue Valve… but it’s not for everyone else.
I don’t know what, if any, options King County Court offers for people from other countries filing suit to be able to do it remotely. I get the distinct feeling this is a “fuck you, show up on our turf or fuck off.”
Looks like District Court might have remote-access options, but I’m not sure if you’ll still have to retain a local lawyer. It says any state or federal courts, but I’m not sure if District court counts more as a city-level court than state-level.
If you have the money to go in on a lawsuit solo, you have the money to retain a local lawyer and probably travel costs.
Otherwise, you’ll have to get a class action going which in that case, a local lawyer is still retained but the cost is spread out and for class actions only 1 person of the party needs to be present (if at all)
Forced arbitration and picking jurisdictions is illegal in the EU so that clause doesn’t apply to Austria. An Austrian would file in any Austrian court that has jurisdiction for contract/civil matter. Therefore, the section with King County includes:
For All Subscribers Outside the European Union and United Kingdom: […] You and Valve agree that all disputes and claims between you and Valve (including any dispute or claim that arose before the existence of this or any prior agreement) shall be commenced and maintained exclusively in any state or federal court located in King County, Washington, having subject matter jurisdiction.
Wow reading through it certainly sounds like it’s the plaintiff law firm that’s being scummy, predatory and even funded by some VC company “Black Diamond”
I don’t quite see the point they’re making, I’m assuming by “massive arbitration lawsuit” they mean they’re being sued because of and to get rid of the arbitration clause?
I don’t see how it’s a win for them in either case tbh, maybe they’re trying to avoid having a precedent set is all that I can think of
I keep seeing this all over the place and not once has it ever been sourced. Frankly this just screams of more epic games astroturfing to make people think valve bad
Yeah smells a lot like them. Throwing Chinese money away to force a “monopoly” shift didn’t work and everyone saw through their practice. Loosing bribed companies left and right (Ubislob and Scam Enix for example). They are desperate and they know they cant count on Fortnite or Tencent forever.
The Valve typical silence treatment worked wonders on Swiney’s mind.
If that’s what it is them that’s awesome. I want to be able to see a company do something that sounds like a good thing without that back of the mind thought of ‘what are they up to…’
Steam being actually based would be great.
what is the mass arbitration lawsuit about? Is it, as dual_sport_dork’s article suggests, an antitrust lawsuit? If that is the case… I’d rather claw back the ability to sue directly (small claims, yay!). If valve is accused of something else Id love to hear about it.
ppl underestimate the power of small claims. I’ll take it over the $2 store credit a class action might get me.
Those are welcome changes, for sure, but Steam’s ToS still leaves plenty of room for privacy concerns.
Is this an attempt to beat those monopoly allegations?
Can anyone ELI5 what’s going on at Valve regarding this? I’ve read a couple of articles and am Nun the Wiser
unshittification
