Is it legal to buy steam games with a different currency from a different country?

[The Ethical Gooner]

Just asking.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Are you physically IN said country?

If not, no.

[Zekiran]

"Just asking" if you can bypass your local country's restrictions, or use a vpn to change where you're 'apparently' living, or ... pick a feature.

No, it's not okay.

[Radene]

Ask a lawyer. Your local lawyer, in fact.

[Andrei]

Its not allowed but u can try it and See it for urself some ppl got cought and their account was red flaged and some are still doing this and nothing happenend

Yes its legal if u go to a another Country u can use the currency there u can also change ur account localication to the new localication but keep in mind once changed u have to wait 14 days to change it back to ur localication

[Atom.Little]

I don't think the currency you use when you buy matters to Steam. What matters to them is that you pay, and they take all currencies.

But it matters to your country of residence, and I know that many European countries have laws against using other currencies than their own.

You cannot hide behind a VPN, they only help you stay anonymous from other private Internet users (and it doesn't even always work against them; a clever person who knows a bit about the more complex areas in computing - such as how to trace a UIP and has the necessary time to dig up your password(s) - can easily break through a VPN. An expensive double-proxy might do the trick, but that would definitely be illegal in Northern Europe and probably in many others of the more controlling countries too).

Radene is right, you need to consult a local lawyer.

- Unless you happen to be in the country whose currency you were planning to use. In that case you can go straight ahead because it's totally legal to spend the currency of the location/country where you're at when you make the purchase.

Hope that helps.

[BossGalaga]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Are you physically IN said country?

If not, no.

:qr:

I get a kick out of the ole threads where people claimed they were "visiting" another country, bought some Steam games and then immediately returned to their own country and wanted to know why their purchases had been flagged or were region restricted.

[The Ethical Gooner]

Thanks for all your responses. Was just curious.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by AmaDraque:

some amount of sense, some amount of nonsense.

No one ever needs to involve a lawyer unless they're being pursued by a legal case.

Lawyers don't take care of things like this, until it's a civil suit. Common sense = if you don't live in the area and it's restricted to be purchased in your own, you cannot and should not attempt to buy it for a variety of reasons not the least of which is getting a pretty dark mark on your ability to buy other games on Steam.

[DocShady]

This one is stirring up the locals real good.

[Darren]

Originally posted by BossGalaga:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Are you physically IN said country?

If not, no.

:qr:

I get a kick out of the ole threads where people claimed they were "visiting" another country, bought some Steam games and then immediately returned to their own country and wanted to know why their purchases had been flagged or were region restricted.

It did sometimes happen legitimately, but if you've got your store region setup correctly nowadays when you purchase you pay your home countries prices, and get games in the appropriate region.

You can still activate local keys though (I did while in Japan) fortunately wasn't a region restricted game.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by AmaDraque:

But it matters to your country of residence, and I know that many European countries have laws against using other currencies than their own.

Actually... the other way around. It appears to be a European law which forbids shops from denying people to purchase goods in another currency, apparently Europe even sued or warned Steam over this.

There's a lot of 'controversy' here. I also read that a French judge once rules that people should be allowed to sell their used Steam games, a ruling which was also based on European law.

[BossGalaga]

Originally posted by ᛋᚺᚨᚾᛞᛟᚱ:

Originally posted by BossGalaga:

I get a kick out of the ole threads where people claimed they were "visiting" another country, bought some Steam games and then immediately returned to their own country and wanted to know why their purchases had been flagged or were region restricted.

Which is - for example - totally possible when you life in Southern Germany. You can visit Austria and Switzerland both within 1 1/2 hour.

Yeah but I've traveled all over the world and I've purchased Steam games abroad and my account has always been US based. It has never prompted me to change my country or my currency. You have to manually change your account to another country to purchase games in another currency or region so the people who do this know what they're doing. It's not like it happened accidentally.

[Winslow]

Just buy it on some keystores etc. its fine i guess.

[Wolf Knight]

Originally posted by michael_ekblad:

Here's a better question: Why should I have to pay more for a game than someone in Vietnam or Argentina? Because the currency is stronger? Well, the cost of living is still through the roof for everyone, so having different prices for each country is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

if you wish to complain about the price in your country, take it up with that games developer, they set all prices on steam.

[Start_Running]

The whatever currency is used is automatically concverted to the currency in the purchasuing region so I don't think it matters