Washington Appellate Court Dismisses Valve Corporation’s Lawsuit Against Bucher Law PLLC

SEATTLE, WA — June 30, 2025 — After fighting for 19 months while simultaneously litigating thousands of individual consumer arbitrations, Bucher Law PLLC has achieved a major appellate victory against Valve Corporation. In a significant, published ruling reinforcing protections for legal advocacy, a unanimous panel of the  Washington Court of Appeals has ordered the dismissal, with prejudice, of Valve’s lawsuit against Bucher Law. The court found that Valve’s claims for tortious interference and abuse of process were barred under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), an anti-SLAPP statute protecting against “lawsuits ‘that masquerade as ordinary lawsuits but are intended to deter ordinary people from exercising their political or legal rights or to punish them for doing so.”

The case arose after the Bucher Law filed thousands of individual arbitration claims on behalf of Steam users challenging Valve’s anticompetitive practices. Valve responded by suing the law firm, seeking to unlawfully chill the litigation against it by alleging the firm sought to “weaponize” Valve’s arbitration agreement to interfere with customer relationships, despite Valve previously convincing a federal judge to compel its customers to arbitration in 2021. Here, the Court rejected Valve’s attempt to intimidate consumer protection lawyers and their clients, holding that the firm’s  actions were protected advocacy under the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) and that Valve was “hoist by its own contractual petard.”

The Court found that Bucher Law’s actions fell squarely within the statutory criteria for UPEPA protection under RCW 4.105.010(2)(b) and (c), specifically recognizingthat Bucher Law’s communications and conduct were:

• Made in connection with a judicial proceeding, and

• A protected exercise of the First Amendment rights of speech, petition, and association on matters of public concern.

The Court also ruled that Valve’s claims failed because Bucher Law’s conduct was protected by litigation privilege, which bars civil liability for attorneys acting within the scope of judicial proceedings. The Court concluded that the firm’s legal actions (taken in accordance with Valve’s own user agreement requiring individual arbitration) was legitimate legal advocacy in service of its clients. According to the Court, such conduct is “precisely the kind of conduct the litigation privilege is designed to protect.”

Finally, the Court rejected Valve’s argument that a statutory exception applied, finding the out-of-jurisdiction caselaw Valve cited concerned  claims based on commercial relationships between a law firm and its clients, not for actions taken as part of legal representation against a corporation. Because Valve failed to establish any exception to UPEPA applies, and could not state a valid legal claim, the Court ordered the claims dismissed with prejudice. Bucher Law will continue to challenge Valve’s anticompetitive practices on behalf of thousands of Steam customers compelled to arbitration. 

Bucher Law PLLC is a law firm specializing in consumer protection and antitrust law. 

Partners Dan Weiskopf and Theresa DeMonte at McNaul Ebel Nawrot & Helgren PLLC represented Bucher Law, and Angus F. Ni of Morrow Ni LLP contributed to the winning appellate brief.