In late February, the state of New York filed a lawsuit against Valve, accusing the company of promoting gambling. As it turns out, those were not the only legal troubles for the company. It is now facing two more lawsuits.
Dota 2
Recently, a class action lawsuit against Valve was filed by the law firm Hagens Berman on behalf of players from across the United States. Similar to the New York authorities, the firm criticized loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2. They compared loot boxes to gambling and claimed Valve is illegally profiting massively from them.
"Valve has created a carefully crafted system of loot boxes to extract money from consumers, including children, using deceptive psychological techniques typical of casinos," the document states.
Hagens Berman wants the court to prohibit Valve from engaging in "gambling" and compel the company to pay triple the damages.
The second lawsuit was filed by the UK organization PRS for Music, which represents musicians' interests. Unlike the other plaintiffs, PRS for Music is not targeting loot boxes but the music in Steam games.
PRS for Music claims that Steam currently hosts many games featuring works created by its members. These include games from the Forza Horizon series, EA Sports FC, and GTA. However, Valve did not obtain a license from PRS for Music to use this music, thereby violating UK copyright law.
PRS for Music added that it has attempted for many years to negotiate with Valve regarding licenses but to no avail. It remains unclear why they chose to discuss this matter with the owner of Steam rather than with the game developers and publishers.