Australian commission says Valve needs to obey the law and offer refunds

Sep 2, 2014 13:24 GMT  ·  By

Valve, the large independent company behind the Steam digital distribution service as well as highly successful projects like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Dota 2, is being used in Australia by a government commission over the restrictive refund policy employed on Steam, which doesn't obey Australian laws.

Valve has been around for quite some time and the Steam service is the undeniable leader in terms of digital distribution of games and software across the PC, Mac, and Linux platforms around the world.

However, the service has been notoriously difficult when it came to canceling pre-orders, asking for refunds, or generally trying to get in touch with Valve's support staff.

The restrictive refund policy is currently getting the studio into hot water in Australia, as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, ACCC, has decided to sue the company because the Steam terms of service aren't respecting the law in the large country.

The Steam refund policy states that Valve does not offer any refunds "unless required by local law." Australia, like quite a lot of countries, guarantees consumers the right to refund an item if it presents major flaws or doesn't live up to expectations.

As such, the ACCC is taking Valve to court over not obeying Australian consumer laws.

"The Australian Consumer Law applies to any business providing goods or services within Australia," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said, via IGN. "Valve may be an American based company with no physical presence in Australia, but it is carrying on business in Australia by selling to Australian consumers, who are protected by the Australian Consumer Law."

"Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their option if a product has a major fault. The consumer guarantees provided under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be excluded, restricted or modified."

The lawsuit is already scheduled to see its first hearing on October 7 in Sydney.

Valve's Doug Lombardi has also issued a statement, saying that the studio is trying to cooperate with Australian authorities.

"We are making every effort to cooperate with the Australian officials on this matter while continuing to provide Steam services to our customers across the world, including Australian gamers," Lombardi mentioned.

Valve faced similar problems in Europe after the European Union passed a law that practically allowed owners of digital items, such as games or software, to be able to sell them off, just like physical products. The studio managed to avoid succumbing to that law and is still adamant about not allowing refunds or trade-ins.