The Paris Court of Appeal confirms the impossibility of reselling video games in digital format


The Paris Court of Appeal rendered its decision on October 21 concerning the sale of dematerialized video games. By DC Studio

The judgment, dated October 21, decides in favor of the Steam platform against the consumer association UFC Que-Choisir, which could appeal in cassation.

The Paris Court of Appeal has settled a long legal battle started in 2015 between UFC-Que Choisir and the market leader in the distribution and sale of PC games Steam. The consumer association believes that a video game purchased in digital format must be able to be resold in the same way as its physical version engraved on Bluray. Steam is fundamentally against it. The American company had appealed a first decision, rendered on September 17, 2019 by the Paris court, making fourteen clauses of its user contract illegal, including the general prohibition on reselling a game purchased on their platform. This decision opened the door to a possible second-hand market for video games in digital format.

However, as revealed by the media L’Informé, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed in a judgment dated October 21, 2022 the impossibility of reselling so-called dematerialized games. In her decision, she asserts the rule of “exhaustion of rights“. The rule in question limits industrial property rights once commercialization and placing on the market have already taken place. The court also considers that the video game is not a simple computer software. It is above all a work of the mind where copyright applies. ” Lhe market for second-hand immaterial copies of video games is likely to affect the interests of copyright holders much more strongly than the second-hand market for computer programs “, decides the court.

Furthermore, the Court does not recognize the “steam walletas electronic money. A point raised, here too, by the consumer association since the “steam wallet» allows you to deposit money in order to buy games. Recognizing it as a currency would have changed the regulations around reimbursement.

A possible appeal in Cassation

In addition, the Court refused to seize the Court of Justice of the European Union, as wished Ufc-Que Choisir. ” The Court considered that it could resolve this case without seeking clarification from the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereas we consider, on the contrary, that this is a debate which also concerns European regulations “says Raphaël Bartlome, head of the legal department of the association.

Ufc-Que Choisir could now appeal to the Cassation to thwart the decision: “ We are going to take a few weeks to make a calm reading of the decision and observe if there are serious grounds for going to Cassation.“says Raphaël Bartlome. A subject “topical“, he estimates, while in 2021, according to a study by the consulting firm Accenture, the video game market represented more than 300 billion dollars in revenue worldwide. A market largely boosted by the rise of dematerialized games. In France, half of console games are in digital format, while the PC game market is entirely dematerialized.



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