Well, trading games from regions with cheaper prices and to avoid regional restrictions may end up with a ban.

Yes, trading, and doing so often enough. I'm not really proposing trading, not easily proved from Steam's point of view anyway. (and I did it like 2 times, ever.)

PM me. Don't bother about the ban, if they wanted to ban everyone who gets gifts from abroad they would have to close the business ;)

Thanks :-) Sent you info and stuff. Nothing to see here anymore people, move along!

I love seeing a plan come together. :)

I've had many games gifted to me from regions with the cheapest price (both regionally restricted games and ones available in my region). And my account is still perfectly fine.

As I heard only person that gave a gift to another may be baned. Not person that took a gift. I'm not saying that it will definitely end up with a ban.

Internet is just full of stories about it, so I mentioned about it.

I'll add then that people who have gifted to me in such cases all still have their accounts too. If someone has lost their account in such a situation, it's more likely for another reason (using a VPN to make such purchases for example).

I'm telling!

To my mother!

You may end with ban only if you will say on official steam boards "I will buy a gift from XXX for XXX dollars" , in any other case, they have no proof it wasn't for free.

Also, you may defend that the gift was free, and you just paid for his time making the gift.

Pretty much this, also don't talk about buying it regionally for someone in the steamchat as i believe they could check chat logs if they wanted.

What i don't get is if steam or the publishers actually set fair prices across countries in the first place instead of charging euros or austrailians more, nobody would have to go through these loopholes.

If it's done through Steam Trading, then trading with someone from the UK on a one-off basis is fine in accordance with the Steam Trading Policy. There's nothing in the SSA or Steam Trading Policy that bans you from accepting gifts from or gifting to people in another region. I've used to it to get UK/US versions of games where the game was cut or unavailable here, and I've sent Steam gifts to my sister in the UK before.

In fact, I think Steam Trading lifts any regional restrictions from the gift and applies them to your region when you unpack the gift. I know that Left 4 Dead is region-locked and shouldn't usually be able to run if you activate, for example, a US retail version, but my version is uncut and runs fine.

I think the issue with gimperial was that he wasn't just doing it as a trade for a one-off - he was doing it for money and flaunting this fact.

If the worst comes to the worst, you can refer the matter to a lawyer, as Steam's blocking of an account for trading to circumvent regional pricing within the EU is outright illegal. Establishing a violation of market competition regulations when trading with the US is more tricky, but the EU forbids any hinderance of the flow of goods and services within the Internal Market.

I gifted so many games I cannot even count. During Christmas Sale in 2010 my account was locked three times because of numbers of gifts I purchased. But no game has ever disappeared from my or recipients account.

Of course it's not a proof of anything, same as saying "I've been doing this for years and I'm ok". You can cross a road on a red light 100 times and be ok, but on 101st you might get hit by a truck.

OT: That sounds like one of those Final Destination deaths.