New Steam Agreement gets rid of forced arbitration and waivers for class action lawsuits (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 hours ago by abobla@lemm.ee to c/steam@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20230080

Noticed this update got pushed just now.

Edit: Seems they’re doing this to prevent costs from arbitration.

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[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 12 points 1 hour ago

Regardless of their motivations this seems like a big positive. Forced arbitration clauses should be illegal and unenforceable in any context where it isn't customary for both parties to have legal counsel reading over the contract. And it's appalling that waivers for class action lawsuits are legal at all.

[-] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 5 points 1 hour ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like a major _de-_enshitification step on the part of Steam.

I'm not missing something big, am I?

[-] MarcomachtKuchen@feddit.org 12 points 2 hours ago

I have not idea what this means. Can someone ELI5 me?

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 18 points 2 hours ago

Previously if you had a dispute with Steam you would go to a mediator appointed Valve and you discuss things with Valve and come to an agreement. Sounds good, as it doesn't mean you have to involve lawyers.
Until you realise, Valve is paying for the mediator so the mediator has an incentive to agree with Valve to keep the business. In addition, any agreement is purely between you and Valve. It effects no one else, any previous agreement between Valve and the previous person has no bearing.

Contrast that to going to court, court decisions are binding and are able to be used in other court proceedings.

[-] bappity@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

forced arbitration means you can't go through the normal court system if you want to sue them, instead resolving it through a private neutral third party.

and before, the waiver meant that you gave up your right to sue them in a class action lawsuit

getting rid of those is a massive W

[-] suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Without getting into the weeds of arbitration—if you want to sue Valve for some reason, you now have to file in King county, Washington. This makes it too expensive to be worth it for any amount less than the cost of flying to and staying in Seattle for a lawsuit. Even if you're right and Valve is wrong.

Amazon recently did this too and it worked out well for them I guess, since other companies seem to have followed suit.

[-] yozul@beehaw.org 2 points 1 hour ago

There are much less expensive ways of suing someone than just flying there and staying until the lawsuit is done. They're still not cheap, but that's a pretty absurd way of doing it.

Forced arbitration is also complete bullshit. The fact that corporations are starting to realize it's almost as bad for them as it is for us doesn't make it any less bullshit.

[-] grandma@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 hour ago

Rare corporation w?

[-] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago

What does it mean? Also, does it affect everyone or just the US; because I did not see a popup about it in the EU.

[-] zephr_c@lemm.ee 1 points 9 minutes ago

Forced arbitration is already unenforceable in the EU, so it doesn't change anything for you. It just makes it so it works for the rest of the world the same way it already did for you.

[-] sovietknuckles@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

It means that the key to getting a company to ditch arbitration is for enough people to win individual arbitration cases. There's arbitration lawyers who hedge their whole careers on arbitration payouts