18 months after the case first started, the Australian Federal Court has found that Valve is guilty of breaching Australian Consumer Law.
The court case between Valve and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission stems from Valve’s lack of a refund policy when the ACCC first sued the gaming company. Valve’s argument was that the company doesn’t officially conduct business in Australia, saying that it only provides access to an online portal to video games through a client which the company claims that this online portal does not fall into the definition of “goods” in Australian consumer law. Valve also brought up the Steam Subscriber Agreement, saying that the agreement was drafted based on the law of the State of Washington in the United States of America and not the law of Australia.
The Australian Federal court, of course, disagreed, saying that as Valve was doing business in Australia, it is bound to operate within Australian Consumer Law. Furthermore, The court found that Valve made misleading statements to consumers in its T&C contained in three versions of its Steam Subscriber Agreement and two versions of its Steam Refund Policy, all of which are focused on the rights of Australian consumers to a refund if they’ve been sold a faulty or defective product.
With the case done and dusted, Valve is expected to pay up an as of yet undisclosed sum of liability, and the company may even need to pay 75% of the ACCC’s legal costs.
Source: Kotaku
