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posted by janrinok on Sunday April 22 2018, @01:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the get-your-facts-right dept.

The Valve vs Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) saga has been long and drawn out, but today the High Court of Australia has upheld a December 2017 ruling, meaning that Valve will have to pay a AU$3 million fine for engaging in "misleading or deceptive conduct."

It's a decision years in the making. In 2014 the ACCC launched legal action against Valve. The crux of the argument: The ACCC believed that Valve (owners of Steam, the world's largest PC games online marketplace) was in breach of Australian Consumer Law.

The major issue was Valve's lack of a refund policy. Any business that sells product in Australia, digital or otherwise, is subject to Australian consumer law, and Australian consumer law demands that all companies must provide refunds on faulty goods.

Valve introduced an official refunds policy in June 2015, but in 2014 Valve explicitly did not offer refunds. There were occasions where Valve provided refunds on a case-by-case basis, but Valve's official policy was no refunds.

"As with most software products," read the policy, "unless required by local law, we do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC or in-game items purchased on our website or through the Steam Client."

"Unless required by local law" was the sticking point, because in Australia Valve was required by local law to provide refunds, but didn't.

Valve's response to the lawsuit was interesting. First, it argued it technically didn't conduct business in Australia, therefore Australian Consumer Law did not apply to Valve and the games it sold through the Steam client. Secondly, Valve argued the games being sold through the Steam client didn't fit underneath the definition of "goods" as per Australian Consumer Law.

The Federal Court of Australia did not agree with those claims.


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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 23 2018, @03:38PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday April 23 2018, @03:38PM (#670770) Journal

    I'm glad there's a feature that allows you to return a game. That's a feature you wouldn't normally get in the USA. You just need to make sure you buy it from Steam and not a retail box with a Steam code.

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