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The developer wouldn't be on the hook because Steam is the one handling payment processing. If they don't handle CC fraud and just pass the buck to the developer who happens to be the one whose game was purchased fraudulently, that sounds like a pretty serious problem with Steam IMO.

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Steam doesn't sell keys.

You either buy it directly to your account, or gift it directly to a friend. Either way, it's locked to an account at the point of purchase.

Steam does allow developers to generate steam keys, which the developers can sell elsewhere (or give away). But then steam isn't handling the payment processing, and whoever is, often developers, is responsible for handling chargebacks.

Bingo, now I understand

Can the developers retract Steam activations?

ie - chargeback occurs and they disable the game for that key?

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