/SOLVED/ Is it allowed to use a VPN to buy Steam games cheaper ?

[X3LL3N]

Hey there !

I live in France and I usually buy my games during Steam sales (or on Humble Bundle and Eneba from time to time).

Today I was watching a video on Youtube when a sponsorship for NordVPN happened.

One of the arguments provided was "Buy cheaper games on Steam by using stores from Thailand and Russia"

I was aware for a while that some people did that, but I was pretty sure it was against Steam's TOS. Yet many people doing sponsorships for VPNs talk about it.

My question is : Is it allowed to use a VPN to buy Steam games cheaper ?

Thanks !

[Spawn of Totoro]

No. It is a violation of the SSA (and possibly you government as it also means you don't pay them taxes) and can lead to the account being locked.

[Ⱥrtƒlø]

Its against steam TOS as you said. Steam says you can get banned for using VPN. Thousand of people was changing country to get steam games cheaper and because of it in 2020-21 changing country become harder and is much more controlled than before. (Now you need to make transaction from new location)
But still, You can use vpn if you want, but its illegal and risky.

[Blargo]

Pretty sure literally every company has terms against it, and like mentioned above, could count as tax evasion.
It's odd to me how every VPN sponsored ad on YouTube is marketed as such.

I wonder how those VPN providers feel about someone using another VPN to pay for their subscriptions at a cheaper price.

[Junior]

Using VPN to buy cheaper games is taking advantage of something so is not allowed but using VPN while connected to steam to do other things is no issue it'd allowed.

[nullable]

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Today I was watching a video on Youtube when a sponsorship for NordVPN happened.

One of the arguments provided was "Buy cheaper games on Steam by using stores from Thailand and Russia"

I was aware for a while that some people did that, but I was pretty sure it was against Steam's TOS. Yet many people doing sponsorships for VPNs talk about it.

My question is : Is it allowed to use a VPN to buy Steam games cheaper ?

Thanks !

Yeah, because the person shilling for Nord VPN doesn't care if your Steam account gets restricted or penalized. They just want money from Nord for attracting customers.

And it's not as if people doing sponsorships are actual subject matter experts about anything they're talking about. It's not any sort of prerequisite to sell something.

I'd go so far to say you could probably report them to youtube and Nord for encouraging piracy, as neither company probably wants to be associated with that.

[X3LL3N]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

No. It is a violation of the SSA (and possibly you government as it also means you don't pay them taxes) and can lead to the account being locked.

I understand, thank you very much ! (Weird that VPNs use this as a sellling point if it's illegal though)

[B-o-B]

VPN's aren't though. Your lines and initial story is blurred at best with only your word to go on it, thankfully.

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

No. It is a violation of the SSA (and possibly you government as it also means you don't pay them taxes) and can lead to the account being locked.

I understand, thank you very much ! (Weird that VPNs use this as a sellling point if it's illegal though)

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

No. It is a violation of the SSA (and possibly you government as it also means you don't pay them taxes) and can lead to the account being locked.

I understand, thank you very much ! (Weird that VPNs use this as a sellling point if it's illegal though)

Well the thing is, sales people aren't exactly the most scrupulous - they tend to bend the truth in marketing speak.

I commonly use an exampe from audio. You might see stereo systems boasting "x amount of Watts power" and you'll read into the small print and see it says PMP Only.

What does that mean? It means this figure is obtained by turning everything up way into distortion and it might hit that power figure. Whereas the TRUE figure is RMS and is consierably lower.

Also, sales people often aren't well versed with law, and laws aren't universal in any case. As Nord (or any other VPN) is international then it makes no sense to bung in detail slike not applicable in x country, excpet this country .... blah blah blah.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

No. It is a violation of the SSA (and possibly you government as it also means you don't pay them taxes) and can lead to the account being locked.

I understand, thank you very much ! (Weird that VPNs use this as a sellling point if it's illegal though)

It's not illegal, it's just against the TOS of pretty much any service.
And what else do they have as a selling point? Nothing. That whole privacy and security thing flies right out of the window if you bother to actually look into it.

It's pretty much today Anti-Virus craze and that a lot of these companies now also offer a VPN service should be telling.

[my new friend]

Mid-roll paid sponsor ads are created by the content creator you were watching and not the sponsor who paid for the ad. Nord has a few talking points they must ad in the video. One of the points is for the content creator to show how it can be used in real life. The content creator took it upon themselves to use it in this manner.

[X3LL3N]

Originally posted by my new friend:

Mid-roll paid sponsor ads are created by the content creator you were watching and not the sponsor who paid for the ad. Nord has a few talking points they must ad in the video. One of the points is for the content creator to show how it can be used in real life. The content creator took it upon themselves to use it in this manner.

That's true, but I believe the sponsors also review the content creator's ads, to be sure it follows their guidelines and doesn't put them in trouble. I guess they let it slip somehow.

[my new friend]

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Originally posted by my new friend:

Mid-roll paid sponsor ads are created by the content creator you were watching and not the sponsor who paid for the ad. Nord has a few talking points they must ad in the video. One of the points is for the content creator to show how it can be used in real life. The content creator took it upon themselves to use it in this manner.

That's true, but I believe the sponsors also review the content creator's ads, to be sure it follows their guidelines and doesn't put them in trouble. I guess they let it slip somehow.

They only care about the talking points. They don't care about the use case scenarios the content creator makes. I've even seen some content creators tell people to use VPNs for Netflix shows in other countries. Nord doesn't care at all. They are also a brand of a company Tefincom based in Panama. Nord also just merged with Surfshark.

[J4MESOX4D]

You can only purchase games in a store locale which matches a verified payment method attached anyway now, so even if you were using a VPN to exploit the system, it wouldn't work. Even if you add external funds, the wallet/gift location must match or be within a certain percentage difference.

[Your Mom's Oshi]

You should report this ad to Nord and to your local tax collection agency. I'm sure both entities would like to have a word with this person if it is pointed out to them.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by X3LL3N:

Originally posted by my new friend:

Mid-roll paid sponsor ads are created by the content creator you were watching and not the sponsor who paid for the ad. Nord has a few talking points they must ad in the video. One of the points is for the content creator to show how it can be used in real life. The content creator took it upon themselves to use it in this manner.

That's true, but I believe the sponsors also review the content creator's ads, to be sure it follows their guidelines and doesn't put them in trouble. I guess they let it slip somehow.

Well yes and no. It entirely depends on the contract.

Some content creators accept contracts where such a review is needed before they put their videos up, but others do not. Many (generally more scrupulous Youtubers) will take contracts where they have full say-so over content and do not need review from the sponsors before publishing.