Quote:In May, Valve received two alarming letters from the Kansspelautoriteit with accusations that the loot boxes present in the ever-so-popular CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) and Dota (Defense of the Ancients) 2 games represented an infringement to the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act. The Dutch Gaming Authority gave Valve an ultimatum to make the necessary modifications to both games by today or the Kirkland-based developer could face administrative fines that can scale up to 830,000 euros (approximately $962,000) or ten percent of the company’s global revenue.

After meeting with its Dutch legal team, Valve discovered a rather useful piece of information in the Dutch law. Apparently, loot boxes are only illegal if the in-game items are transferable. As a stop-gap solution, Valve ingeniously disabled Steam trading and Marketplace transfers for CS:GO and Dota 2 for Dutch Steam users. While Valve didn’t understand or agree with the Kansspelautoriteit’s assessment of the loot boxes in the affected games, the company will continue to work with the Dutch authority to work out a more convenient solution for its Dutch customers.