New Steam subscriber agreement...

[Ctuchik]

So i got a popup about a new subscriber agreement and was reading it through when i found this...

For EU Subscribers:
You agree that this Agreement shall be deemed to have been made and executed in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and that it is subject to the laws of Luxembourg, excluding the law of conflicts and the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

The fuck does that mean?

 

[Raven]

Not a lot in reality.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Yeap. Nothing much, especially if you don't do stupid sh*t.

 

[Scouse]

It'll be a tax dodge for Valve...

 

[dysfunction]

It'll be a tax dodge for Valve...

Indeed! Luxembourg has lower tax rates.

 

[Moriath]

maybe cause of the resale of licenses being allowed in europe now ? maybe lux is outside that ruling as well ..

 

[Embattle]

Perhaps but as a company you accept the laws of the country you sell in as far as I know, either way it is probably just some way to get out of something.

 

[Ctuchik]

Perhaps but as a company you accept the laws of the country you sell in as far as I know, either way it is probably just some way to get out of something.

Yeah but i want to know what it is so i know if i should start to worry or not. I'm getting really suspicious when i see dodgy crap like this and no one can tell me what it actually means.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Most agreements, eula's, coc's and whatnot don't affect the majority of users in their whole lifetime, even if they said they own your firstborn child. Most the time it's just stuff to protect the writer more then enforcing some rules.

 

[Ctuchik]

Sure, but it basically says "follow the laws of Luxemburg when you use the Steam client"...

I don't know any of the laws there.. Does this mean i'm expected to read up on them just to make sure Valve can't rape me?

 

[Raven]

It doesn't really matter, they still have to abide by the laws of the country they are selling in...

EULAs are pretty useless anyway, they can't supersede law, no contract can.

 

[Ormorof]

maybe cause of the resale of licenses being allowed in europe now ? maybe lux is outside that ruling as well ..

but Luxembourg are in the EU

probably a tax thing, if they move their profits between countries in some magic way it lowers their taxes to below 1% in most countries

as an example google move their monies between ireland and netherlands using some loophole meaning they only pay about 0.2% tax on their UK revenues in the end