A recent change to Steam's terms and conditions could lead to legal action, with the German consumer rights group taking Valve to court over it if the company doesn't respond within an allotted time.
The Half Life developer recently added a clause to the T&C of its digital distribution platform that forced users to agree never to take part in a class action lawsuit against the firm. Anyone wanting to opt out of the clause wouldn't be given access to their account. This, argues the German group, is tantamount to coercion, making it impossible for users to have any sort of choice over the matter.
In a move that is likely to please gamers the world over, it is also hoping to get valve to agree to work within the boundaries of the digital resale recommendation made by the European Court of Human Justice in July, where a judge declared that all software vendors needed to allow for their product to be resold by individuals that purchased it, as long as the original product was passed along and not just copied. Valve made it quite clear it had no plans to allow gamers to sell on their unused Steam games, to the disappointment of the platform's users.
Valve has until October 10th to respond to the desist order from the rights group, at which point if it doesn't agree to the changes, it will be taken to court. This is an extension over the original September 26th date, perhaps suggesting that the rights group is more bark than bite, but we'll have to wait until the 10th to find out for real.
