The Federation of German Consumer Organizations confirmed plans to take digital distribution platform Steam to court by the end of this year following the game distributor's refusal to change its terms of service regarding the right of users to re-sell digital software purchases.

The federation, known also as VZVB, announced its intentions earlier in February after last year's ruling from the European Court of Justice stating European consumers should have the right to re-sell digital titles.

"Unfortunately a date of the trial is not fixed - we hope it will take place this year," representative Eva Hoffschulte said, as reported by Gaming Blend. "Until then, it is not realistic that Valve will change their policy. But our chance to win the process is very good and that will be really an improvement for consumers: then they can sell their games to others.



"We have not checked the current directives, because first we have to finish our lawsuit against valve. Over and above that we are not able to take action against Valve, because of our financial and personnel situation."

The VZVB sent Valve a cease-and-desist order in September of last year regarding the issue shortly after Valve made changes to its end user license agreement prohibiting users from filing class-action lawsuits against the company. Following the initial lawsuit claim, Valve's vice president of marketing Doug Lombardi said the company was aware of the press release from the VZBV announcing the lawsuit, but hadn't yet to see the actual complaint.

We've reached out to Valve for comment and will update when further information is made available.