As of today, millions of Steam users received a notice from Valve announcing an important update to the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA).
Valve has removed the requirement that disputes must be settled through arbitration rather than in court.
Now, if a dispute cannot be resolved through Steam Support, users are required to take their case to federal or state court.
Legal experts consider this a significant win for Steam users, though most users with a dispute are unlikely to take Valve to court.
Traditionally, agreements—especially in the United States—compel consumers to arbitrate rather than file lawsuits once they accept the terms.
Previously, Valve mandated arbitration for any disputes, which involved a neutral third party reviewing the issue to reach a resolution outside the court system.
Alongside this change, Valve has also eliminated the class-action waiver, allowing class-action lawsuits from groups of users with the same complaint to proceed, which was previously not permitted.
In a press release, Valve explained, “We’ve eliminated the requirement that disputes be resolved by individual arbitration.
As always, we encourage you to contact Steam Support for any issues, as that’s still the best way to find a resolution.
However, if that doesn’t work, the updated SSA now allows disputes to be resolved in court instead of arbitration.
We’ve also removed the class action waiver and the cost and fee-shifting provisions from earlier versions of the SSA.”
This shift is quite significant, as most service agreements include an arbitration clause.
While Valve has not provided a specific reason for this change, some speculate it may be influenced by the case of Jeffrey Piccolo, who sued Disney after his wife tragically died due to an allergic reaction at dinner.
Disney initially responded to the lawsuit by arguing that Piccolo had “waived his right to sue” when he signed up for a Disney+ account in 2019 and used the Disney World website in 2023.
However, public backlash led Disney to reconsider, allowing the lawsuit to proceed in court.
Whether the decisions by Valve and Disney will encourage other companies to follow suit remains unclear, though it is possible more companies could reconsider their arbitration clauses.
Still, it’s unlikely, as many businesses prefer to settle disputes out of court and avoid lengthy legal processes wherever possible.
