No, you can't. That's not how Steamkeys work. I was going to give details but technically they're under NDA via Steamworks. I'll just say there is no option to buy Steamkeys cheap from Valve, or even buy them at any price.
I think what you mean is, Steam's standard T&C do not offer this, and it is specifically not available to
you. Again, it's absolutely normal for codes to be mass distributed with hardware and even other software as an incentive. Ergo, it absolute is possible.
Most recently I bought
The Universe from Cryptivo directly before it was in Steam Early Access, then when it got that far, Cryptivo provided everybody who bought direct with a Steam key. Aspyr, the Mac porting team, also offered this because I bought Settlers 7 (on Mac) directly from their store because at that time it wasn't on Steam, then when it became available I got the Steam key which also allowed me to download the Windows version, which at the time you couldn't eve buy on Steam because it was sold exclusively through Ubisoft's launcher.
Where does it say that the CMA considered the case, didn't follow up, and were in the wrong?
Apologies, I meant the CPO pre-assessment. Too much CMA drama already.
I don't think this is about Sony at all, but about a litigation investment firm hoping to profit off the letter of the law, and lawyers keen to be paid big bucks no matter the outcome. I'm not convinced the consumers are there for anything other than an avenue for legal profiteering.
This party doing all this work with the hope of taking a cut is a gamble on their part. If Sony were found to lose, the court could simply direct Sony to setup an escrow fund for claims or just compensate all PSN users a set amount in a settlement.
If you had a PS3 in 2011 you may recall that PSN hack that resulted in a US class-action lawsuit. However, before that case could be heard, Sony settled by agreeing to compensate all PSN users across multiple territories. There is no third-party litigate-to-win-costs principle in the UK, and the people bringing this case can only take a portion of any costs assigned on behalf of users that sign-up to be presented on their website (which I am not link).
In way, it's not much different to the accident claim ads I'm sure you've seen on TV, or the legal firms ad trying to take a cut of compensation that VW have to provide for misleading diesel vehicle emissions. They need explicit permission to represent individuals and if they don't have that, they really stand to gain very little unless the court happen to assign costs to them and those costs are inflated, but UK courts generally don't do this. They are almost certainly hoping Sony will settle with them, but that seems pretty unlikely.