this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
142 points (99.3% liked)

PC Gaming

8549 readers
467 users here now

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

  1. Be Respectful.
  2. No Spam or Porn.
  3. No Advertising.
  4. No Memes.
  5. No Tech Support.
  6. No questions about buying/building computers.
  7. No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
  8. No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
  9. No off-topic posts/comments.
  10. Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
142
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]
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [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.