Scanning the gaming news headlines recently, I was surprised to see a few reports that Valve had begun offering refunds to European Union customers within 14 days of a digital game purchase on Steam. That would indeed be big news, as getting refunds or any resale value for a Steam purchase is usually near-impossible, aside from some one-off exceptions to policy. After sifting through the legalese, though, it seems that Valve's refund policy hasn't actually changed, despite reports to the contrary.

The rumor of a new refund program for European Steam users seems to have started on reddit, where user punikun noted that the following language had been added to the Steam subscriber agreement:

IF YOU ARE AN EU SUBSCRIBER, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO WITHDRAW FROM A PURCHASE TRANSACTION FOR DIGITAL CONTENT WITHOUT CHARGE AND WITHOUT GIVING ANY REASON FOR A DURATION OF FOURTEEN DAYS OR UNTIL VALVE’S PERFORMANCE OF ITS OBLIGATIONS HAS BEGUN WITH YOUR PRIOR EXPRESS CONSENT AND YOUR ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT YOU THEREBY LOSE YOUR RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL, WHICHEVER HAPPENS SOONER. THEREFORE, YOU WILL BE INFORMED DURING THE CHECKOUT PROCESS WHEN OUR PERFORMANCE STARTS AND ASKED TO PROVIDE YOUR PRIOR EXPRESS CONSENT TO THE PURCHASE BEING FINAL.

It's easy to read that "right to withdraw" bit at the beginning of that clause and jump to the conclusion that EU law is forcing Valve to adhere to a 14-day return window. Indeed, the EU's directive on consumer rights does generally establish a 14-day "right of withdrawal" for the sale of "distance goods" and the execution of some service contracts.

But section 19 of that EU directive explicitly allows sellers of digital goods to ask users to waive that right before they make the purchase, provided the digital goods are delivered immediately. As VG247 notes, European users now click a box agreeing to just that kind of waiver whenever they purchase a new game on Steam:

By clicking "purchase" you agree that Valve provides you with immediate access to digital content as soon as you complete your purchase, without waiting the 14-day withdrawal period. Therefore, you expressly waive your right to withdraw from this purchase.

"So, in short, you get a 14-day return window unless you agree not to have one," Law of the Game blog author and Dallas attorney Mark Methenitis told Ars Technica. "Both Valve and Apple are making you agree not to have one... and they do actually have a good reason to do so. Without that waiver, both the Steam store and App Store become a means to rent content for 14 days and never pay for it... Think of it like the requirement that most software, movies, and music be returned without being opened; otherwise Target/Walmart/Best Buy becomes a rental system for physical goods being returned after being used."

So while it would be nice if Valve decided to follow the lead of EA's Origin and Android's Google Play store by offering some sort of time-limited refund on purchases, Steam's official refund policy remains that "unless required by local law, we do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC, or in-game items purchased on our website or through the Steam Client." And despite what you may have heard, the EU's "local law" still does not require the company to implement such a digital refund program, to say nothing of the rest of the world.

Valve did not respond to a request for comment for this story.