Presentation Outline: Legal Issues of Valve (Digital Game Reselling + Geoblocking)

Dear Class,

We would like to briefly inform you about the topic of our presentation next Wednesday.

We will discuss the very current and important decision from France in the matter of UFC Que Choisir v. S.A.R.L. Valve. The topic is the resale of digital video games by customers of the Steam platform. According to the Subscriber Agreement of Steam which prohibits the resale of games bought on the platform on the market. With this revolutionary decision, Steam has now been ordered to revoke this prohibition. Our presentation will look at how this decision came about, on what legal grounds it is based, what the differences are between a digital and a physical object and how this decision could have an impact in the future.

In addition we will discuss another very relevant issue around Valve’s Steam platform. This concerns the antitrust investigation that was initiated against this company by the European Competition Authority. Valve and 5 other companies are accused of an illegal agreement by which they prevented consumers from using video games and buying them cheaper in other EU countries.

The main topics addressed in our presentation are the following: