Steam Subscriber Agreement

The Steam Subscriber Agreement governs the contractual relationship between Valve Corporation (a Washington State corporation) and individuals who register a Steam account, covering access to the Steam platform, digital game licenses, in-game content, community features, hardware purchases, and user-generated content. The agreement states that subscribers receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use Content and Services, that Valve may modify or discontinue subscriptions at any time, and that all purchases of digital content are final with refunds governed only by the separate Steam Refund Policy. Notable provisions include a mandatory binding arbitration clause with a class action waiver applicable to US residents, Valve's reserved right to terminate accounts and revoke access to all associated digital content, and a broad intellectual property license over user-generated content that is perpetual and royalty-free; applicable law varies by geography, with Washington State law governing US users and EU consumer protection law acknowledged for European subscribers. The agreement engages GDPR for EU/EEA users (with the Valve Privacy Policy incorporated by reference), CCPA for California residents, COPPA for the under-13 age restriction, and FTC Act consumer protection standards; compliance teams should note that the arbitration and class action waiver provisions, while common in US consumer agreements, face enforceability constraints in the EU and several other jurisdictions, and the digital goods licensing model (rather than ownership) has been subject to increasing regulatory scrutiny in the EU under the Digital Content Directive.