The Developer Was Fined for Violating Australian Consumer Laws
Valve was ordered by an Australian court to pay a $2.3 million fine (that’s $3 million in Australian dollars) after violating the country’s consumer laws. The developer previously tried to appeal the court’s decision by using “a special leave application” but on Friday the court dismissed their application.
“The High Court of Australia has dismissed a special leave application by one of the world’s largest online gaming companies, US-based Valve Corporation (Valve), which operates the Steam game distribution platform,” read a press release announcing the court’s decision.
The press release also said that the court’s decision that Valve is bound to the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) was its “final decision on this issue.”
“This important precedent confirms the ACCC’s view that overseas-based companies selling to Australian consumers must abide by our laws. If customers buy a product online that is faulty, they are entitled to the same right to a repair, replacement or refund as if they’d walked in to a store,” said Sarah Court, the commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
In 2016, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia ruled that the developer had to abide by the ACL and it’s digital platform, Steam, was in violation of the country’s consumer laws due to lacking an explicit refund policy in 2014. A case was brought against Valve by the ACCC because of this issue back in 2014.
“The Full Court found Valve carried on business in Australia, and was therefore bound by the Australian Consumer Law in its dealings with customers here,” said Rod Sims, the chairman of the ACCC, last December.
“The Full Court also upheld the finding that Valve made misleading representations about consumer guarantees and that certain terms and conditions in the Steam subscriber agreements and refund policies were false or misleading,” Sims added.
Sims concluded that the case “sets an important precedent that overseas-based companies that sell to Australians must abide by our law.”
“All goods come with automatic consumer guarantees that they are of acceptable quality and fit for the purpose for which they were sold, even if the business is based overseas,” Sims said.