Because lawsuits are a metric shit ton more expensive and aggravating than arbitration. Short of class-action suits most people won't have the means and/or constitution to take on Valve in a major civil suit. You're talking about something that will take years, possibly decades and run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions in cost to you - and that's before any appeals begin. You'd have to have a seriously goddamned good reason to bring a civil suit against them. Even small claims is a pain in the ass, and so small and award - up to 10K in most places- again, doesn't really make it feasible for anyone who isn't local to bother with in the first place. Odds are they'd outspend you there too and you'd lose. It's actually the smart move. I'm just amazed it's never been the standard. There are some advantages to arbitration but its better to prevent any legal action being brought against you in the first place which civil suits take care of most of the time. Shit, to even get a lawyer to represent you in traffic court these days is like 5-10 grand alone. I'd bet dollars to donuts if you called a barrister at random and asked them what the retainer would be to begin proceedings against Steam you'd be looking at 100 thou minimum.