Not too long ago, there isn’t an option to request for a refund from Valve’s digital game store Steam. This did not sit well with some countries around the world as the inability to receive a refund goes against the country’s consumer law. Once such country is Australia, and they have came down hard on Valve over its refusal to implement a refund system between 2011 and 2014.
According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, the Australia Federal Court has fined Valve AUD3 million (RM9.6 million) over said breach in consumer law. Part of the reason why Valve was fined heavily for the lack of a refund option in Steam boils down to the fact that Valve has disregarded Australian law.
“[Valve] had a culture by which it formed a view without Australian legal advice that it was not subject to Australian law, and it was content to proceed to trade with Australian consumers without that advice and with the view that even if advice had been optained that Valve was required to comply with Australian law the advice might have been ignored,” says Justice James Edelman.
The moral of the story for this case? If you’re going to do business in another country, respect the consumer laws of said country. If you don’t, you may pay for it heavily in the future.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald