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Search results for: “commission”

  • European Commission fines Valve Software 1.8 million euros for regional price blocking

    European Commission fines Valve Software 1.8 million euros for regional price blocking

    Well here’s something I didn’t really expect to see. Few years ago European Commission launched an investigation into violation of European Union’s laws by companies like Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media, Zenimax and of course Valve Software – the owner of Steam. The case is now over (or is it?).

  • The European Commission will examine the legality of regional blocks on Steam

    The European Commission is going to take a look at region blocks on Steam. Can we count on non-region blocked games in the future? We all do realize that regionally blocked games are cheaper in certain regions and that’s OK I guess but, according to The European Commission, Valve is breaking the laws of fair trade…

  • Valve is being taken to court by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is alleging that Valve has not fulfilled mandatory consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. While neither Valve or Steam has any physical presence in Australia, the company must observe Australian law when it provides goods or services to Australians. “It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law…

  • EU Commission explains pricing, availability and more

    I’ve just received another e-mail with further details about Valve, Steam and pricing in European Union in general. Go ahead and read it. As I mentioned in my previous e-mail, EU competition law generally does not restrict the freedom of companies to unilaterally decide whether and what to sell in which country. There is no…

  • European Commission responds: If Valve decides to offer a product solely within the UK this does generally not amount to an infringement of EU competition rules

    I’ve just received a response from the European Commission (it’s weird because I did not send them an e-mail but a physical letter) and you guys are not gonna like it: … Thank you for your e-mail regarding Valve corporation. We note that, in substance, the concerns you have raised are to do with the…

  • EU Commission proposal wants two-year guarantee for games

    Pretty interesting read: European game developers are up in arms about a recent EU Commission proposal that, if approved, would require devs to abide by the EU Sales and Guarantees Directive, a rule that mandates "a minimum 2-year guarantee on tangible movable consumer goods." While this guarantee sounds great for consumers, Dr. Richard Wilson, head…

  • European Commission responds, again!

    Just found this on the official Steam Forums (link): Dear Sir, Thank you for the above letter, which has received our fullest attention. The answer to your letter requires further work which is currently in progress. You can normally expect a reply within one month of receiving this letter. Yours faithfully, (signed) Zsuzsanna Jambor Head…

  • European Commission responds

    It seems several people who have sent out complaints as according to the 1€ ≠ 1$ announcement ( click ) have received a reply from the European Commission. Here is a picture of the response: (mirror) The person responding appears to be not understanding the issue. Or is it that we did not understand the…

  • Affinity software free for 90 days, currently on sale at 50% off #stayhome #covid19

    Affinity software free for 90 days, currently on sale at 50% off #stayhome #covid19

    Their software is slowly starting to replace Adobe for most freelancers around the globe and now during the COVID-19 pandemic they’ve decided to give you 3 months free trial of their software! Additionally they are having a sale on all of their products at 50% off the regular price. Here are the details: A new 90-day…

  • #DigitalSingleMarket now in effect!

    The new European Union’s law guarantees access to the same content for all EU member states. On April 1st 2018 the new law is in effect! From now on all content on digital platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Steam and any other digital service has to be accessible to all countries of the European Union. That’s…

  • Game loot boxes to be banned in Europe?

    If you played some multiplayer games for the past 5 or so years you do realize that all popular titles contain some sort of drops that turn into random prizes. So if you’re getting a loot box out of Overwatch, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or recently… Star Wars Battlefront II, watch out because Belgium…

  • Steam store is now blocked in Malaysia

    It seems that the Steam store is currently disabled in Malaysia because of the game Fight of Gods. The client itself works, you can still download your games that you’re subscribed to but you can no longer buy anything from the store. That’s pretty fucked up that in 2017 because of one title (a game…

  • New European Union law to forbid geoblocking in early 2018!

    The European Commission is putting it’s hands on the Internet once again. This time it could be really good for us. The earlier mentioned Steam region blocks case can do more harm than good. Just image how bad it would be for the Eastern European countries if they just generalize the prices to fit all…

  • Our Steam group have just been hijacked from Steam, join the new one!

    Our Steam group has just been removed from Steam by someone who claims to be the new tyrant, a dickhead called TZer0, unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it because I was not the original admin of the group. So far this guy have removed me from the group and ditched everything that…

  • Valve hit with $2.1 million USD fine by Australian courts

    This has been on the net for a while now but due to holiday season I didn’t have much time to post this, anyway Valve lost its legal battle against Australia’s competition watchdog earlier this year. It’s all because of refunds. An Australian court has ruled that Valve must pay $2.15 million USD fine following…

  • EU targeting Geo-Blocking and Territorial Restrictions.

    Today the EU Commission released a paper outlining the Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. One of the points addressed is the “preventing of unjustified geo-blocking”. With other words. The EU commission is planning to ban online territory restriction inside the EU. Many of us have been victim of IP based racism in the past.…

  • EA changes refund policy in Australia

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has successfully pressured EA into changing its refund policy in the country. EA had previously refused to offer refunds for games purchased through Origin. Anyone with a faulty game purchased through Origin can contact EA for help. This applies to games bought from January 2012 and later. “Businesses such as EA…

  • "Free-to-play" misleading advertising in Europe

    European Commission meets with devs to improve consumer protections, wants them to stop calling games free if they have in-app purchases. Complaints from consumers who unwittingly purchased in-game upgrades in free-to-play titles have become common enough that the European Commission is taking action on the matter. EC members are meeting with tech companies and national…

  • The history of Steam Unpowered (1€ ≠ $1)

    It all started in 2008. Valve introduced regional currencies in the Steam store, at first as a beta to join for volunteers only. Back then everyone thought that $1=1€ was just a simple mistake in the new script on the beta site, there were naturally a lot of posts concerning prices especially in the Euro…

  • And now we wait…

    The letter to the European Commission has been sent! We have almost reached 1,000 signatures on the petition (it’s around 900 right now). I’ve changed it up a little, added few sentences about the petition and stuff like that. But if you want you can send the same letter just copy paste it from the…

  • To all EU citizens: Please help us!

    We are about to send a letter to the European Commission. Sending a letter. Why? At the moment I – as a citizen of Poland or for example France, Greece, Germany or any other member country – cannot buy products in the Steam Store in the shop reserved for residents of the United Kingdom (http://www.steampowered.com/?cc=uk)…

  • Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a catastrophe

    Operating system Windows 8 will be a "catastrophe" for PC game makers, according to Valve Software’s boss. Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle, Gabe Newell said the next version of Windows could mean big changes to the PC market. Many took his comment as a criticism of the changed user interface in…

  • We need some changes around here!

    Hey, we’ve decided to reactivate this group and its website a little. You can expect a few subtle changes in the following weeks, from now on we’ll try to focus on the things we cared about the most in the beginning – which is software pricing around the globe, DRM and availability of software in…

  • Blizzard forced to offer Diablo 3 refunds in South Korea

    Server and connection problems with Diablo III in South Korea have forced Blizzard to go against its previous policy and offer refunds to dissatisfied gamers after prodding from a Korean consumer protection agency. Blizzard announced through is Korean Diablo III site that it would start offering refunds to players lower than level 40 beginning on…

  • Blizzard raided by Korean government

    The government has launched an investigation into Blizzard Entertainment over allegations that the American computer gamemaker has refused to refund Koreans who purchased its latest real-time role-playing game Diablo 3. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said the firm is suspected of having violated the country’s law on electronic commerce and commercial contracts. The FTC said…