Australians? Am I right? I mean if ever there was going to be a nationality of people getting uppity over refunds, it would have to be the Australians. Now our Editor-in-Chief, Bella Ryse, is one of the most Australian people I know and from her alone, I could have told you that this was going to happen.
I’ll apologize now for that one, I know you guys n gals don’t like it when people tease you, I mean there was an incident just recently involving a pair of British TV Hosts which ruffled some feathers on a parliamentary level, so I am well aware that you guys can be particularly sensitive to this kind of thing. Especially from your cultural superiors in your ancestral home of the United Kingdom.
That was just for you Chief – I (and all the staff at RGM) love Australians really.
Back to gaming and this article however and you might remember a few years ago, Steam didn’t have an advertised refund policy, namely between 2011-2014 and it’s this period of time that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken aim at. Now the case itself is nothing new, this has actually been rumbling on in the background for the past 3 years even going through a change of judge in the process.
When this case was originally brought forward, it was before the current Steam refund policy was in place and in that time refunds were occasionally given, however not very much with users usually being denied.
The hearing that took place yesterday however was not to find out if Valve were guilty or not, that was determined earlier in the year and yes, they were found guilty, but this hearing was to determine the level of fine that would be thrown at the Seattle, WA based company and that fine was $3million.
Basically though, to rewind things a little, Valve were found in to be in breach of Australian consumer law by not having an advertised refund policy, nor by having one in their Steam Subscriber Agreement and it was successfully argued that the senior management at Valve was “involved in the misconduct” and violation of Australian consumer law. The original defense that Valve put forward was that they were based in Seattle, and therefore any transactions were taking place in the USA – not the country of origin of the individual Steam user, with their general counsel stating “We think of ourselves as an American company doing business in America which has customers all over the world”
Valve had originally pushed for a $250,000 fine, so the $3million fine is just a smidge higher than they were expecting, but then judges and governments often like to make examples of foreign companies who seemingly play fast and loose with their laws. It could have been a lot harsher for Valve, with the ACCC originally demanding a specific hotline for Australians to deal with refund issues, but Valve successfully argued that it would be impractical to have a second separate line of communication just for Australia – this would also have repercussions around the world with a legal precedent being set meaning that Valve might have been forced to open up specific communication lines for all nations that use them – but that is just speculative and a moot point now.
This ruling however is yet to be finalized, with Valve having a month or 2 to appeal and it is yet to be seen if they will or not.
What do you think about this? Is the fine too hefty or not hefty enough? Should Valve have been fined at all? Will Fosters drinking, barbie loving Sheila-of-the-People – Bella Ryse kick me from the writing staff? Let us know in the comments below, the RGM Forums or on Twitter. If you like what you’ve read then feel free to share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest or Reddit using the buttons available!
