The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it will be taking legal action against Steam owner Valve for making "misleading consumer guarantee representations". The online gaming and entertainment platform company is accused of allegedly contravening the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), which protects consumers' contracts and rights when buying goods and services, as well as product safety.
The ACCC points out that Valve's refund policy misleads Australian Steam users on the following fronts:
- consumers were not entitled to a refund for any games sold by Valve via Steam in any circumstances;
- Valve had excluded, restricted or modified statutory guarantees and/or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality;
- Valve was not under any obligation to repair, replace or provide a refund for a game where the consumer had not contacted and attempted to resolve the problem with the computer game developer; and
- the statutory consumer guarantees did not apply to games sold by Valve.
Steam states in its refund policy that "unless required by local law", Valve do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC or in-game add-ons purchased. However, speaking about the matter, ACCC chairman Rod Sims underlines that the consumer guarantees provided under the Australian Consumer Law cannot not be changed.
"Valve may be an American based company with no physical presence in Australia, but it is carrying on business in Australia by selling to Australian consumers, who are protected by the Australian Consumer Law," explained Sims. "It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that they do not give refunds under any circumstances, including for gifts and during sales."
Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi wrote in a statement provided to IGN that the company is "making every effort to cooperate with the Australian officials on this matter, while continuing to provide Steam services to our customers across the world, including Australian gamers."
The suit has been filed in the Federal Court's Sydney Registry, and the first directions hearing is set for 7th October before Justice Jagot. Do you think Valve's Steam refunds policy could change worldwide? Let us know what you think of the legal proceedings in the comments below.
