Valve must pay back €14,096.58 ($15,426.73) to a CS:GO player who spent the money opening cases after a court in Austria ruled that Counter-Strike cases constituted illegal gambling in the country. Valve can choose to appeal the decision.
A court in Styria has ordered Valve to refund €14,096.58 that a CS player had spent on “loot boxes” – a.k.a weapon cases. Cases in Counter-Strike are one of the main ways players acquire weapon and knife skins, but they are luck-based.
A press release, translated from German, states that this is now the first time that Valve’s cases in CS:GO and Counter-Strike 2 have been ruled illegal in Austria:
“Padronus and the Salburg law firm argued in the court case that the ‘Counter-Strike’ loot boxes offered violate the Austrian gambling law and the amounts spent should therefore be refunded. The court followed this view and classified the Counter-Strike loot boxes as illegal gambling.”
The player used an Austrian “litigation financier” called Padronus to bring the case against Valve.
Padronus offers their service to Austrian players who have purchased “loot boxes” in games such as FIFA, Call of Duty, and Counter-Strike. In Austria, there is a gambling monopoly, with only one company – Casino Austria AG – licensed to operate online gambling services.
Valve’s CS cases “illegal” in Austria
Padronus states on their website: “According to the Austrian Gambling Act, every provider of loot boxes must have a license. However, operators of FIFA, Call of Duty, and other games do not have a license.”
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“This is the first loot box ruling in the entire German-speaking region regarding Counter-Strike. The Valve Corporation is now the second video game provider, after the game operators FIFA, to be proven to offer illegal gambling in Austria,” said the managing director of Padronus, Richard Eibl.
According to Eibl, the judge in the case was actually familiar with Counter-Strike, and so immediately understood the facts of the case. This avoided a major hurdle typically associated with these cases, which is to have the judge understand the games and loot box systems.
The court ruled that case opening, “depends on chance and represents an asset within the meaning of the Austrian Gambling Act because the “skins” would be traded on a secondary market (e.g. “Steam”) and thereby make a profit. Therefore it is gambling. Since Valve does not have a gaming license, the contracts concluded between it and the plaintiff are void and the payments made are reclaimable.”
Although Valve now has four weeks to appeal the decision, Padronus told Dexerto: “If they appeal, their chances to win are almost zero, since we already have a second instance judgment regarding the illegality of loot boxes which we won against Sony and Electronic Arts.”
If Valve chooses not to appeal, the decision will be final and legally binding.
Austrian courts previously issued similar rulings against EA and Sony regarding FIFA packs, also now considered illegal loot boxes in Austria.
