this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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Steam will no longer sell games that do not have an age rating in Germany due to regulations (www.gamereactor.eu)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The should just default to 18+ if they don't have a rating instead of taking them off the market.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Legally, they probably can't.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I think you're true for Germany.

The first part of the law is pretty clear and seems to support my idea.

(3) Bildträger, die nicht oder mit "Keine Jugendfreigabe" nach § 14 Abs. 2 von der obersten Landesbehörde oder einer Organisation der freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle im Rahmen des Verfahrens nach § 14 Abs. 6 oder nach § 14 Abs. 7 vom Anbieter gekennzeichnet sind, dürfen

einem Kind oder einer jugendlichen Person nicht angeboten, überlassen oder sonst zugänglich gemacht werden,

It says that you're not allowed to show or sell the material to children if it doesn't have a label.

The 2nd part is worded more difficult

nicht im Einzelhandel außerhalb von Geschäftsräumen, in Kiosken oder anderen Verkaufsstellen, die Kunden nicht zu betreten pflegen, oder im Versandhandel angeboten oder überlassen werden.

It says it isn't allowed to sell them outside of stores like corner shops, mail orders and otherwise POS that people don't enter. This might include Steam online services, but it just says "enter" and not "physically enter" which might give leeway that an account with password might technically fulfil that requirement, but then you would be fighting before a judge about the definition of entering a store.

It's complicated as usual and I can see why Steam doesn't want to rock the boat and end up having to require passports for signing up, rather sooner than later.