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Purely digital items bought are not covered by this law. Only physical items bought online, because you cannot try them like you can in the store.

This means no refunds for Steam games unless your government has put additional rules in place to also cover the purchase of digital goods.

I don't know why you're being downvoted, because what you said is more or less correct:

"But section 19 of that EU directive explicitly allows sellers of digital goods to ask users to waive that right before they make the purchase, provided the digital goods are delivered immediately." -- https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/sorry-europe-you-stil...

Interesting, Steam has granted every refund I've requested (I'm in the US).

Same, I've never had any issue refunding a game with less than 2 hours played prior to 2 weeks after purchase.

When was the last time you tried? Steam introduced a refund system with clear rules a while ago: https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

As others pointed out the european 14 day return policy only applies to physical goods.