France: Steam must allow resale of games

Steam and other providers of computer game licenses are currently under pressure in Europe to violate the Geo-blocking Regulation(see this article). Now there is more “trouble” for the vendors, as a French court has ruled that Steam must offer users the option to resell licenses. The so-called “first sale” principle is relevant, which roughly corresponds to the German principle of exhaustion. On 17 September, the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance upheld the French consumer organisation UFC-Que Chosir.

Taken together, the two legal views would in fact mean that Steam would have to open up platform as such to the third-party market, since if they were to allow only French users to resell, this could constitute a breach of the Geoblocking Regulation. In any case, as long as there is not an explicit French Steam, with which German users should be able to register.

However, Valve, as a steam supplier, intends to appeal the ruling and not make any changes until then. German courts will also not help, because they exclude the principle of exhaustion in digital products. In Germany, the Federal Court of Justice has already taken a position on the non-saleability of Steam games(see this post) and has just recently made a decision on keyselling(see this post – even if not explicitly on computer games).

The result in France must therefore be awaited before it can be said whether the decision has an impact on other suppliers.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.