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Most mobile apps have moved to a model with in-app purchases. I wonder if this rule applies there. If a game is free, but I spend $1.99 on 500 gold coins (in-ga

Most mobile apps have moved to a model with in-app purchases. I wonder if this rule applies there. If a game is free, but I spend $1.99 on 500 gold coins (in-game currency), does the law require that I be able to sell the gold coins? What about if I use them to buy virtual non-consumable items (like permanent character upgrades)? I assume the law wouldn't apply to consumable items (like spending 50 gold coins to speed up the construction of a building) because it doesn't result in any in-game item I own.

touchofevil 9y ago
I'm also curious about reselling in-app purchases. The Oracle vs UsedSoft ruling only applied to "software" as I recall. I think if you had paid for in-app purchases to unlock premium features of a product there could be a case to made that you should be able to resell that free app with the features you paid to unlock. As far as reselling unused in-game currency like gold coins that speed up construction of a building, I personally think it would be cool to see a secondary market pop up. However, I don't know if that would be covered by UsedSoft v Oracle. The big question is whether individual Steam games should be able to be resold in the EU due to Oracle vs UsedSoft. If so, that's a potential multi-billion dollar secondary market that doesn't exist yet. Edit: Sidenote, I actually started an auction site based on the idea of reselling Steam games (and ios games) several years ago based on the UsedSoft v Oracle ruling but due to these companies not allowing users to transfer licenses between each other, my startup was not workable.
chias 9y ago
Generally speaking, this would be a very poor result (from the perspective of said game owners). Pretty much all of us would have our credit card processing contracts revoked, because in all "regular" contracts (e.g. Stripe, Braintree, etc. etc.) you may not use their service to sell goods which can be "readily resold for cash". If that was the legal result, these applications would probably need to stop accepting EU credit cards.
- pmontra 9y ago
  Italy here. Many owners of small shops and small restaurants go to supermarkets to buy stuff they resell because sometimes their dealers don't deliver all they need or not often enough: being small put those shops to the end of the list. I wonder if the contracts are the same here or if processors just don't want to know because they still make money twice from any of those sales.
- surak 9y ago
  That, Or they change their terms to suit EU laws..

touchofevil 9y ago

I'm also curious about reselling in-app purchases. The Oracle vs UsedSoft ruling only applied to "software" as I recall. I think if you had paid for in-app purchases to unlock premium features of a product there could be a case to made that you should be able to resell that free app with the features you paid to unlock. As far as reselling unused in-game currency like gold coins that speed up construction of a building, I personally think it would be cool to see a secondary market pop up. However, I don't know if that would be covered by UsedSoft v Oracle. The big question is whether individual Steam games should be able to be resold in the EU due to Oracle vs UsedSoft. If so, that's a potential multi-billion dollar secondary market that doesn't exist yet. Edit: Sidenote, I actually started an auction site based on the idea of reselling Steam games (and ios games) several years ago based on the UsedSoft v Oracle ruling but due to these companies not allowing users to transfer licenses between each other, my startup was not workable.

chias 9y ago

Generally speaking, this would be a very poor result (from the perspective of said game owners). Pretty much all of us would have our credit card processing contracts revoked, because in all "regular" contracts (e.g. Stripe, Braintree, etc. etc.) you may not use their service to sell goods which can be "readily resold for cash". If that was the legal result, these applications would probably need to stop accepting EU credit cards.

pmontra 9y ago
Italy here. Many owners of small shops and small restaurants go to supermarkets to buy stuff they resell because sometimes their dealers don't deliver all they need or not often enough: being small put those shops to the end of the list. I wonder if the contracts are the same here or if processors just don't want to know because they still make money twice from any of those sales.
surak 9y ago
That, Or they change their terms to suit EU laws..