Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

US—Valve sues to halt mass antitrust arbitrations after clause held unenforceable; seeks injunction, alleges forum shopping and claimant misrepresentation; Western District of Washington: Valve Corp v Abbruzzese

Published on: 22 October 2024

Published by a Law360 reporter

Legal News

Article summary

According to Steam's owner Valve

Valve says that in 2023 Bucher launched a mass‑arbitration drive through his new practice, The Bucher Law Firm. As part of this push, he advised Steam users that pursuing arbitration alleging the platform monopolised the gaming market to keep prices artificially high was a better route than a class action. Valve also contends Bucher embarked on the campaign after being dismissed from Zaiger LLC and accused of taking its client list, again urging users to choose arbitration over a class action.

His firm then issued a settlement demand that Valve characterises as extreme and beyond any plausible recovery, and submitted thousands of arbitration filings to the American Arbitration Association. In May, Bucher Law sought rulings in four of its cases to have the arbitration clause in the company’s former subscriber agreement declared unenforceable. Those applications were granted in July, after which Steam dropped its arbitration clause, prompting users to accept a new subscriber agreement last month...

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