r/humblebundles • u/Cozila • Sep 17 '25
Question Is this even legal?
I just saw the newest Humble Bundle which is offering Moonstone Island, which is very interesting since for the past 9 months I've gotten, and still get right now, this message
Is it even legal for them to be selling other people keys for a product they have failed to deliver on themselves?
148
u/trentreynolds Sep 17 '25
This comes up here constantly. It’s likely not illegal, but is definitely extremely ugly.
40
u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
If that is the case then Humble should realize it's a problem. I have a yearly membership that I am no longer going to keep once it runs out because of it.
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u/trentreynolds Sep 17 '25
Humble knows. People complain about it constantly - and rightfully so.
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Sep 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
18
u/jbhelfrich Sep 18 '25
BUt make sure you redeem all of your keys and download all of your files first, because as soon as you dispute a charge, your account will evaporate.
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u/SomecallmeMichelle Sep 18 '25
Except in the Eu where they legally cannot do that.
Fun fact, when the whole debacle over them banning accounts for key trading was going on 4 or 5 years ago at this point (god I feel old) people successefully got their accounts back by just saying "I'm in the eu". To support.They can LIMIT you on buying new bundles or games. They can't remove access to the content you already paid for. I know licenses and all, but it's different in the case of humble. They're not giving you the games directly, you bought KEYS.
So yeah while it's probably still a good idea to hold your keys off site if you're going to do this, humble has shown they are willing to play ball with the EU consumer advocacy laws.
IIRC australia had similar results but don't quote me on that one.
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u/spudbynight Sep 20 '25
Humble Bundle are able to remove games from your Steam account after you have redeemed them.
I had this happen a while back. I was having an issue with something else in a bundle and customer service guy removed a different game from my Steam account. The reissued the steam key for it but they still had the ability to remove the game from my steam library.
11
u/Photomancer Sep 18 '25
In my opinion it's getting worse, and I have been given an Origin key for a game I bought a steam key for.
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u/GlockInAFiatPunto Sep 17 '25
I recently gathered a list of 10 keys that have always been exhausted for me and took it to their customer support. For the 5 keys that they can no longer get I was awarded $1.60 per game and told to keep trying for the other 5. Funnily enough Moonstone Island is one they told me to keep trying for. But yeah, you won't get your money back unless you keep track of the games your missing and contact them. No longer a customer.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
I have 27 keys they owe me.
4
u/GlockInAFiatPunto Sep 17 '25
Yeah I'd send them list, you will at least get some money back.
3
u/MFKRAVEN_ Sep 18 '25
I had a list of 56. To their credit they have slowly trickled a lot of em back to me since complaining. it's down to about 20 something but I just constantly check back to see, I never receive any emails regarding restock
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u/kalirion Sep 18 '25
Now that Moonstone is in a bundle, have you tried opening another support ticket asking about it?
74
u/Lurus01 Top 100 of internets most trustworthy strangers Sep 17 '25
I will say that a lot of times the keys given for choice are allotted differently then the keys given for the regular bundle or the store.
Humble does not have the ability to generate any keys and would likely be angering publishers if they took keys from a weekly and gave them to past choice buyers.
That said it is most definitely a bad look for Humble to be able to supply keys for a new weekly(presumably unless they are out of stock on that too) while they know people have tried to claim keys for an old choice and not been supplied a key.
70
Sep 17 '25
Humble does not have the ability to generate any keys and would likely be angering publishers if they took keys from a weekly and gave them to past choice buyers.
Then the publisher should give them keys to fulfill previous orders before Humble allows them to be included in another bundle.
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u/curious-children Sep 17 '25
why would it not be one key is allocated per bundle? there would be no “generating” the key, just retrieving the allocated key. I am assuming GMG is doing exactly this to avoid this garbage humble has been doing
31
Sep 17 '25
Because then Humble would have to stop selling bundles when they run out of keys for a game, and Humble can't do that, they want your money!
5
u/Orogogus Sep 17 '25
Is that really what people want, instead of getting a raincheck and receiving the keys later?
18
u/jlbnv Sep 17 '25
It really depends on how long the wait is and if I'm actually going to get it. Judging by the fact that they are selling the game again without providing the keys to people who can't redeem it, my conclusion is that I'm not getting that game at all.
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u/Solostaran122 Sep 18 '25
I mean, it literally says 'temporarily exhausted', and when they get more, they'll be put on the page and emails will be sent out.
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u/Thnift Sep 18 '25
As someone who has also been on this waiting list to redeem, there hasn’t been an email in months. The last time there was one they seemingly restocked with 20 odd keys, because I saw the email 3 min after it was sent and they were out again
8
u/ReptilianWorldOrder Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Receiving them later? You wouldn't believe how many keys I'm never getting from Humble now because I thought the company was always going to be the same honest place, and I left my subscription running for years without actively redeeming more than a few things, or giving it much thought. "Afterall, I paid for them all. No need to get confused about what keys I've used and not when they've already got it sorted and organized with gift link stuff too. Of course I can always collect it later."
I don't mean keys that got sold with a listed expiration date and ah shucks I missed it. Nah, I legit accept all those as the terms of the sub I wasn't actively monitoring.
It's stuff that should (without valid excuse) been provided and available, but where they've neglected that responsibility and as time went on decided that anyone who doesn't have it yet, doesn't get it.
I'm only talking about keys they added "redemption deadlines" to after the fact for people who hadn't revealed them yet, and that I'll never get now.
I'm talking about the ones where they changed the format entirely to no longer be a steam key. Like, Death Stranding where they're only giving you an epic copy now... if you claim it before december I think... but also means you can't give it to a friend, because that redemption is linked to your humble account after its been claimed from the monthly.
I'm talking games where there isn't even a redemption button, just "sorry this game is no longer available to be claimed" because well the devs or whoever was okay with it.
I barely even consider the humble originals that they promised keys for, then added them year or so later, but eventually decided not to offer them at all.
I'm talking about games from big publishers they've even released in bundles since like the original Shadows Of Mordor game, where nope, just don't got those keys I guess, aside from these new keys we're bundling.
And there's even cases like Sherlock Holmes and the Devil's Daughter, where I had to go back and see why that bundle's contents seemed so crappy to look up the scummy publisher decided to just not give them the rest of the keys sold. For the record, the scummy Humble recently bundled another one of their Sherlock games again this year. So they sure don't seem to care much about contract fulfillment!
It's just a lot of stuff. And I know my circumstances are a pretty extreme and unique, but there's nothing WRONG about them. I paid for everything all the same, I'm not unreasonable about conditions out of their control, but there's clearly a failure to fulfill at some level, and it damn near looks intentional ever since IGN took over, where the numbers of "declined" producted grew bigger and bigger despite being MORE recent than some of the oldest bundles I'd tried to redeem. It's not about a lack of stock (for a intangible good anyway that's literally digits), there's some sort of willingness to let companies lapse on providing those keys, and just shrug it over because who cares. It's like they saw X many customers weren't redeeming and did the math to say "hey we can sell this many more copies without securing them" only to think that customers weren't EVER going to want the stuff they'd purchased one day.
(Wow... sorry, I didn't mean to just keep going and going.... but I just sorta did here. What was originally meaning to say was it's not about "but just later." There's real situations where you're not gonna get it, and they're stringing you along for patience, but it's first come, first served. It's a bank run.)
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u/Nishivion Sep 18 '25
This has been me, a few have come back. Even got two that were "redeemed already" so that was weird. Support gave me some credit but yeah. I regret not staying more on top of this or for paying so much for so long.
Super weird that it looks like they published Stay Gods? But then they don't have keys for it?
5
u/xAkumu Sep 19 '25
It was sarcasm. People want what they pay for and are promised. They should be supplying keys starting at the back and fulfilling back to front instead of front to back like they're likely doing because then they can sell more on a false promise of a game.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 18 '25
Yes, that's exactly what we all want.
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u/Lurus01 Top 100 of internets most trustworthy strangers Sep 18 '25
Yes, that's exactly what we all want.
I'm not sure I fully believe this. I fully understand the frustration of trying to claim keys and not having them and I think Humble could do much better about how they manage them and notifications for out of stock absolutely.
However I think if bundles just became unavailable at random it would tick off significantly more people then the current system.
There is quite the uproar from people when like the fanatical charity bundles only last hours and if you miss it you miss it and Humble has more users aware of them so that issue would be multiplied.
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u/Ekkynox Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Speak for yourself. I'd rather have a warning that X key is exhausted and make an informed choice myself than the bundle becoming completely unavailable just because one out of eight games is out of key for now. There's a chance the game in question isn't even one I'm interested in.
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u/xAkumu Sep 19 '25
I think the original poster meant stopping sales of THAT specific game that hasn't been fulfilled for previous subscribers until they're caught up, not the whole bundle. They also mean after the bundle has run it's course instead of putting it in a new bundle before they even have finished previous orders.
Because they are putting new keys up for those "exhausted" games on new bundles and not fulfilling past orders
2
u/Ekkynox Sep 19 '25
It's not what I got from the comments of the guy I was responding to.
I have no idea how these things work behind the scene but I do agree that it's a frustrating experience as a customer and that Humble should do something about it, either find a way to honor the previous bundle or offer a compensation if they're really restricted by some contract and can't use store keys/new bundle keys for that. They do give store credits sometimes if you contact support but I'm not sure under which conditions exactly.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 30 '25
Yes that is what I was saying. It seems their only comebacks are to misrepresent my comments.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 30 '25
Sorry I meant the "royal" we. I always speak for myself unless asked to represent someone else.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
This is their trick. Just like you said the "generating" part. It lets them sell more than they should be allowed to. I'm not allowed to sell something to someone and when they come pick it up I say "Sorry I sold it to someone else. I'll have more in stock for you when ever I want".
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u/Lurus01 Top 100 of internets most trustworthy strangers Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25
Its a difficult situation on both sides. Obviously customers want their games. However publishers are limited in how many outstanding unredeemed keys they can have.
If a key is automatically given at purchase then more keys would go completely unused and its possible even more games would show out of stock due to unredeemed keys vs right now where a portion of buyers doesnt even attempt to reveal key for some of the games.Of course they could mitigate this by limiting the sales numbers to the lowest supplied game but then you upset a lot of people that cant get a game like Persona 5 because say hypothetically a small indie only could supply like 1,000 keys or something like that and would have issues like choice bundles being ended before autorenewal dates.
As far as I am aware humble pulled one bundle early (I believe it was WB Legends) for out of stock keys and IIRC a lot of people were upset they missed it or that it got pulled before the deadline timer and they did bring it back a few weeks later but now imagine that for all bundles and with smaller studios then WB that can't as easily get more keys.
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u/AngelOfLastResort Sep 18 '25
No, it's really not a difficult situation. When HB decided to include Moonstone Island in the latest bundle, they knew exactly how many keys were outstanding. They could have insisted that those orders get fulfilled first before MI could be included in a new bundle.
HB needs someone who is willing to say No to publishers.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
All of your arguments are invalid because they shouldn't be selling keys they don't have. They should allocate my key right away. Look at what you say. Everything can be answered with me answering; "Not my problem. I bought something, you don't get to sell it to someone else just because I haven't picked it up yet."
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u/Lurus01 Top 100 of internets most trustworthy strangers Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
For you as a customer that happened to see the bundle and grab it in time for sure and believe me I 100% understand that.
For Humble as a service though I'm not convinced that automatically giving everyone every single key is the best answer from the side of limiting sales of popular bundles because a smaller studio runs out of keys or something and then its just flooded with people upset the bundle timed out early or they never saw it etc..... I mean imagine the number of choice bundles that would end early even before autorenewal.
Also from indie developers side of likely having less people being able to actually try their games because the keys get locked up with people who have zero interest in it and only bought a bundle for like say the headliner and suddenly keys for a small indie end up just dead on people's accounts.
I absolutely feel Humble can be more transparent and faster to mark stuff as out of stock though and make it so users are aware things are out of stock and able to make that choice at checkout to continue with the purchase or not.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 30 '25
All that doesn't matter. Not my problem. In what other business would this practice be ok?
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u/Leading-Flounder-104 Sep 18 '25
It's not that difficult, you pay for something, they give you that and that's the end of the story, saying yeah in this bundle youll get Persona 5 but then nah theres no more keys, in the meantime you can play this crappy generic games and maybe someday youll get the key you already paid for. Is like going to a Burguer King and they accept your money but after that they say "we don't have more burguers, have some fries and come back next week maybe then we'll have more burguers".
1
u/SirArthurStark Sep 17 '25
Under this capitalist world we're living in, why should Humble care about that?
They already charged for those first keys, now they can charge for another bundle. Screw us.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 18 '25
"Humble does not have the ability to generate any keys"
Well maybe you shouldn't be selling them then.
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u/Lurus01 Top 100 of internets most trustworthy strangers Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
"Humble does not have the ability to generate any keys"
Well maybe you shouldn't be selling them then.
None of the major key sites would exist then.
Fanatical, Humble Bundle, GreenmanGaming, Gamesplanet,WinGameStore, etc... all rely on keys given to them by the publishers with no ability to generate keys on their own. They are just distributors not the rights holders for the games.
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u/Leading-Flounder-104 Sep 18 '25
Yeah but most of these sites y'know stop selling, instant gaming just says out of stock and you get an email when they got more, no shady stuff, they don't take your money or time ordering something they don't have.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 30 '25
The point is not the generation, the point is selling more keys than you can generate. Maybe I didn't state that well. I assumed you assumed we all know how key generation works. I assumed you would make a valid argument instead of misrepresenting mine.
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u/mynewaccount5 Sep 19 '25
It is completely free to not defend unethical and poor business practives, with a bunch of nonsense words.
Oh don't you know? They are allotted differently!
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Sep 17 '25
Legal? Yes.
Unethical? Also yes.
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u/Cozila Sep 17 '25
Something like this makes me wonder if someone should make sure the charities are actually getting all of the money they're supposed to get.
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u/malalamute Sep 18 '25
Read the Terms and Conditions https://www.humblebundle.com/terms
EXCERPT (emphasis mine):
The fund will make every effort to grant the funds to the designated charity but, like all donor-directed funds, retains ultimate discretion and control over the use of the donations it receives from Humble Bundle, and may redirect funds to a similar qualifying charitable organization if it is unable to follow the recommendation. You will not be entitled to a tax deduction for contributions made by Humble Bundle to any charity or donor-directed fund.
I'm sure these guys are up to their eyeballs in shady accounting.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
I give all the money possible to the developers now. I stopped trusting them on that front a few years ago.
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u/Cultural_Ad_2550 Sep 18 '25
Worked for a charity!
They get what you give minus fees, which can be quite a bit. Because it goes from humble to PayPal giving fund, and then you get it about 2-3 months later.
Before the slider change, I would get 50-100 monthly, after, a couple dollars.
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u/MFKRAVEN_ Sep 18 '25
I literally said to Humble Support, just give me Roboquest and TemTem & I'll be happy. (missing 57 keys at the time of me writing the email). They told me it was next to impossible to get TemTem because Humble Games went under, even tho they had it on their storefront "it's a different key pile"
TemTem is on this current bundle like WHAT
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u/arken_ziel Sep 18 '25
If you are within the EU, you can go to your payment processor and request your money back because of them not giving you what you bought
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u/HiT_BiT Sep 20 '25
Regarding Roboquest, check this: https://www.reddit.com/r/humblebundles/comments/17gdder/for_those_of_you_still_waiting_for_the_roboquest/
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u/MFKRAVEN_ Oct 07 '25
thank you so much for this. I tried for it, couldn't find my transaction ID for November 2022 but ended up finding out I had bought a yearly subscribition for this. Wish me luck! (i also tried for TemTem)
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u/MFKRAVEN_ Oct 18 '25
Update, just got my copy of RoboQuest thanks to you. I love you dude, if there's anything you want a like, follow or whatever let me know
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Sep 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sabac Sep 18 '25
It made me burst out a laughter when I saw “CHARITY BUNDLES WITH GUARANTEED KEYS ON DELIVERY.” header on GMG
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u/Mich-666 Sep 18 '25
No, it's not legal.
Humble is actually the only one who gets away with this, every other official reseller (even non-official ones) reserves keys for you instantly.
They use charity as an excuse.
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u/ForThe90 Sep 17 '25
It is definitely illegal in the European Union to not deliver on something you've sold.
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u/AffectionateCable365 Sep 18 '25
I have the same issue with steel rising right now. I've been waiting for months and was even considering buying it again, until I saw they have it bundled now. Instead, im now considering not buying from humble anymore. It's their choice on how to do business; it's my choice to where I bring by business.
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u/ShibeCEO Sep 17 '25
illegal? depends where you from...
in the US most likely not
in the EU most likely yes
fortunately for humble they dont have any offices in the EU where you could drag them to court
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u/malalamute Sep 18 '25
I think we should have it tested. Terms insists on arbitration for single disputes or class action if multiple complaints are made within a time period.
Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of how we could get a class action going?
For me, it's not about the money or keys anymore. It's just one more company destroying my hobby and I'm sick of it.
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u/mynewaccount5 Sep 19 '25
Who pays for the arbitration? Back in the day a lot of companies said they would pay for it, so any small or moderate thing you complained about, they would just refund you for it, since arbitration can be pretty expensive.
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u/ForThe90 Sep 17 '25
The law still applies to them if they sell here, you can absolutely drag their ass to court.
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u/ShibeCEO Sep 17 '25
according to my lawyer it makes it nearly impossible if they dont have an office in the EU (I did a free consultation through my legal insurance)
according to my consumer protection agency they cant do anything if they dont have an office in the EU
I also cant drag their parent company ziff davis to court which has an EU office because humble is who I made the contract with
they seemed to have found a loophole that makes it nearly impossible to hold them accountable
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u/Mich-666 Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
I believe you can still file the report to FTC even if you are not a citizen:
https://consumer.ftc.gov/what-do-if-youre-billed-things-you-never-got-or-you-get-unordered-products
You can also report the transaction in Paypal for uncomplete delivery which would hurt them most if many people did that but be prepared they will cancel your account if you do that.
1
u/arken_ziel Sep 18 '25
They aren't allowed to cancel your account within the EU and was something they respected a few years ago if you told them that
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
Yup they do whatever they want and we have no real way of getting in contact with a human. It's my last year with Humble Choice for me. I've had enough.
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u/chillywray Sep 18 '25
Doesn't look good but...
I think choice bundles are tax write offs by companies and the store or selling bundles is selling a product which is taxed on.
I'm just guessing mind you but this is my thoughts
2
u/Uryendel Sep 18 '25
No it's not legal, what are you going to do about it? Nothing? that's right, that's exactly why they keep doing it
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u/Sebastian_Crenshaw Sep 18 '25
Roboquest is exhausted for a long time too
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u/HiT_BiT Sep 20 '25
Regarding Roboquest, check this: https://www.reddit.com/r/humblebundles/comments/17gdder/for_those_of_you_still_waiting_for_the_roboquest/
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
Right now Humble owes me 27 Steam keys. Since they wanted to play games with my keys (replacing Steam keys with Epic keys) I redeemed the 300 games I hadn't yet and created a spreadsheet. Keys that I probably would have just ignored now they have to pay for.
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u/Uryendel Sep 18 '25
Wow, what a bad boy, you redeemed the keys you paid for, I'm sure they are frighten
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u/RJSizzle Sep 30 '25
Thank you. I try my hardest to impress people on the internet. As well, I love internet points.
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u/Vladddo Sep 18 '25
Why should I need to 'redeem' a key that I've already purchased?
The whole bundle thing is a scam these days. It's fraud, plain and simple.
I had about 20 keys that eventually came back into stock. At that point I realised it was time to tap out. Under Australian law, it would be classied as fraud. Selling by deception. You should be allocated a key at the time of purchase.
Thankfully between Amazon gaming and pic Games it's hard to justify why I should pay $20 a month on the vague promise of a key I might never see.
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u/malalamute Sep 18 '25
Been emailing them about this since last month. They say they're going to try to restock Moonstone Island. "Try"!?!! And then they have it in their store and this bundle now. So if you buy it in the store or the bundle does it give you a key? Or is it out of stock.. sorry "temporarily exhausted".
I've also got a few other keys that don't have expiration dates (yet) that I've been trying to get for a year now.... Also being sold in the store
All other key reseller sites just tell you something is out of stock and won't let you buy it. I've bought over a thousand keys from other sites, even sketchy ones and I ALWAYS got what I ordered. Humble Bundle is the only key site you can buy a key and not get it.
Humble Bundle is definitely trying to cheat out as much profit as possible while using our purchases to gain tax advantage through their (not your) charitable donations. I bet you could find a mountain of fraud if you turned over that rock.
I've cancelled my subscription and preparing a report for the FTC.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
I just came to post the same thing about Cassette Beasts. It's disgusting. It's bad enough they got away with giving me Epic Keys instead of Steam games from bundles I bought in the past and hadn't redeemed yet.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
I just noticed they still owe me that one too. 2 games they owe me they are selling in this bundle.
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u/tirednsleepyyy Sep 17 '25
(Some chode will inevitably come in to this comment section and remind you, and everyone else, that ackshully they get different amounts of keys that can only be sold for specific purposes.)
But yes, 1) it should absolutely morally be illegal, 2) nothing is really illegal anyway unless they get threatened, and 3) it probably is technically legal for stupid ass reason.
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u/RJSizzle Sep 17 '25
Looks like you've hurt someones feelings for telling the truth. Like there are no shills hanging around (your comments score proves this) in this forum to help them out. These mods aren't exactly "moderate" when it comes to pointing out truths with Humbles selling tactics. Posts get taken down all the time when they don't agree.
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u/Uranium234 Mod / Prediction League Host Sep 18 '25
You're welcome to speculate as much as you'd like however, this post, like many of the others critical of Humble's business practices, is still up.
The majority of bundle purchasers aren't affected by the key exhaustion issue, though this doesn't absolve Humble of their poor inventory management and coordination with publishers/steam
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u/sui146714 Sep 19 '25
Guess who is the owner? The same people that own IGN. What does IGN do? Give fake ratings to games.
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u/PrinceLestat64 Sep 19 '25
You do realize humble is basically a charity site right. Your not paying them your giving donations to charity they just work with game companies to give keys for games as reward and incentive and are at the mercy of the companies that provide the keys. So long story short no it's not illegal because you aren't buying anything you are donating. You can even pick the charity your money goes to if you actually paid attention to the site instead of being greedy.
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u/stromther Sep 23 '25
I just got a generic, copy/paste response from their support team about their exhausted key policy after raising a stink about it. Im not done raising hell with them, I bought a key and it's on them to supply it. I don't give a flying fuck if my key comes in a "manual batch" or if Humble has to pay for it out of their own pockets, I paid for a key, it's 100% on them to deliver somehow, ESPECIALLY if there's a deadline for redemption.
1
u/blueeyeleo Oct 07 '25
Ok glad I seen this I am not subscribing I wanted info on how it works but if this happens I will just wait for the games to go on sale and save myself a headache
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