Valve, the company who own PC gaming’s biggest online marketplace, Steam, has been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for the past few years, but it’s all come to an end today with the High Court of Australia ruling that the company will have to cough up a $3 million fine.
Back in 2014, the ACCC got up in Valve’s grill for not offering refunds to Australian consumers, despite it being required by law. Steam states pretty clearly that it doesn’t give out refunds across the board, but the thing is, the official policy points out that it makes exceptions when “required by local law”, which it is here as per Australian Consumer Law.
Any company that sells goods in Australia, regardless of whether or not they’re based internationally, must offer a refund, repair, or replacement on faulty goods, which Valve decided they didn’t wanna do from 2011 to 2014.
After some fairly piss-weak arguments from the company’s lawyers about not technically trading in Australia (despite having delivery networks and game servers set up locally) and its products not falling under our definition of “goods”, Justice Edelman fined Valve $3 million for misleading Australian consumers.
As soon as the ruling was handed down in December of 2017, the company filed for a special leave to appeal the decision, which was today denied by the ACCC.
“As a result of the High Court’s refusal of special leave, the Full Federal Court’s decision that Valve is bound by the ACL in its dealings with Australian customers, despite being based overseas, is the final decision on this issue,” the ACCC said.
And as Australian consumer watchdog commissioner Sarah Court points out, it’s an important step for Aussie game consumers moving forward.
“This important precedent confirms the ACCC’s view that overseas-based companies selling to Australian consumers must abide by our laws,” she said.
Pay up, Steam. Pay the fine.
