A new Dutch class action has been filed against Valve Corporation, the company behind Steam. The case is brought by the Stichting Consumenten Competition Claims (CCC), which has launched the proceedings under the name GameClaim. The foundation acts on behalf of all Dutch PC gamers who have purchased games through Steam or other PC distribution platforms since 2013, IGN Benelux reports.
https://www.wolfire.com/blog/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-action/
This dev was trying to sell his own game on his own site. A single player game. No steam keys. Just a download. And got threatened by valve to stop or be removed from steam. Illegal since that’s NOT in the contract he signed.
I’m skeptical this wasn’t about selling Steam keys on an external site for less than the price on Steam. Plenty of places sell DRM free versions of games at whatever price they want but steam keys can’t be discounted on external sites. That price parity is only for steam keys though at least per policy.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys?hl=en-US#%3A~%3Atext=You+should+use+Steam+Keys%2Cpurchase+or+download+on+Steam.
That’s their claim. They provide no proof.
They’re going to court so I assume there is proof.