You might have heard that Valve – the folks who own PC gaming marketplace Steam – lost a lengthy legal battle last week, with the High Court rejecting the company’s appeal and forcing it to pay the $3 million fine originally handed down in December 2017.
Over the past few days, Aussie Steam users have been getting a notice outlining their consumer rights, making very clear about what they failed to do before – adhere to Australian Consumer Law.
You see, the platform had a pretty blanked no refunds policy between 2011 and 2014, but our consumer laws stipulate that a refund, replacement, or repair must be offered for faulty products. Despite Steam’s terms pointing out that its policy was dependent on local laws, it still failed to provide Australian users with refunds when they were entitled to them.
You can check out the entire statement below, which pretty much just points out that as Steam operates in Australia – even though they deal in US dollars – they must follow our consumer laws.
It changed its tune a little while ago now, so not much is going to be different for Aussie gamers moving forward, your rights are just clearer through the platform.
