The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Sony to court over its PlayStation refund policy, which does not currently align with Australian Consumer Law.
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The ACCC is beginning action with the Federal Court, stating that Sony has been “making false or misleading representations to Australian consumers,” which brings the company’s digital refund policy into the spotlight. The policy, which was set by the UK-based Sony Europe in October of 2017, essentially voids refunds for digital content as soon as it’s downloaded “unless the game developer told the consumer the game was irreparably faulty or otherwise authorised a refund”.
Australian consumers agree to this policy in the terms of service when signing up for and using a PlayStation account.
A number of examples listed in the court filing state that the company “put practical impediments in the way of Australian users seeking to obtain refunds”. In one of them, a consumer was denied a refund for a buggy game after a Sony rep told them that “once the game is downloaded there’s no refund available”.
Australian Consumer Law ensures that customers are given a refund, repair, or exchange on faulty products, even if the provider is based overseas. “No matter where in the world a company has its headquarters, if it is selling to Australian consumers, the Australian Consumer Law applies,” ACCC chairman, Rod Sims, said in a statement.
“Sony Europe’s alleged conduct may have caused Australian consumers to not seek a refund, replacement or repair for a faulty game when the Australian Consumer Law gave them a right to do so.”
In some circumstances, consumers were offered a store credit, which cannot be a substitute for a standard refund unless it’s requested by the customer themselves.
“Consumer guarantees do not expire after a digital product has been downloaded as we allege Sony Europe told consumers, and refunds must be given in the form of original payment unless a consumer chooses to receive it in store credit,” Sims said.
A similar case against Valve, the owner of the PC gaming platform, Steam, went all the way to the High Court after the company refused to give refunds for faulty games. The ACCC won the case and the platform now displays a notice to Australian consumers with their retail rights and offers refunds on any game providing it’s been played for less than two hours.
Given there’s a precedent for this kind of thing now, I’d say we’ll get a similar outcome with Sony, but they are a much larger company with way more resources, so I guess we’ll see what happens.
