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Australian Consumer Watchdog Takes Valve To Court

Posted by samzenpus on from the time-to-sue dept.

angry tapir writes The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a government funded watchdog organization, is taking Valve to court. The court action relates to Valve's Steam distribution service. According to ACCC allegations, Valve misled Australian consumers about their rights under Australian law by saying that customers were not entitled to refunds for games under any circumstances.

5 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. by Jimbookis · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have noticed when purchasing new items these days that there are slips of paper reminding consumers of their rights and whatever the company bandies about as company policy cannot trump Australian consumer law, ever. We do refunds here. Suck it up.

    1. Re:Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. by Brulath · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's pretty straight forward, if it breaks within the expected tolerances and lifetime that the average consumer would expect, and is critical to the operation of the device, they must repair, replace, or refund it. If it's a major fault that would've prevented its purchase in the first place, they must refund. If it costs over either $10,000 or $40,000 (I don't recall which off-hand, as it's rarely relevant) then it falls under different warranties, but anything under those is protected.

      It basically says "buyer beware" is bullshit and sellers are responsible for providing quality products, not misleading people into buying crappy ones. Though you can still provide crappy products that work just well enough to not be considered broken - they're usable, at least.

    2. Re:Welcome to Australia, Ferengi. by GNious · · Score: 5, Informative

      Apple tried this in Europe - in Denmark, a government body created a letter people could print out and take to the stores to remind the company about legal requirements and rights.

  2. Re:Bad business practice by jones_supa · · Score: 3, Informative

    it is ridiculous to sell a game using Mac software and then it will not run

    Doesn't the Steam page for each game explicitly list which operating systems it is compatible with in the information box with all of the other info?

    It seems that in his case the store page incorrectly claimed that the software has also a Mac version, but when he purchased it, he found that it's Windows-only.

    The store page for AVGN Adventures seems to show correct information right now: only a flag symbol showing that it's Windows software. Maybe previously that page had both a flag and an apple symbol? That's how I interpret the situation.

  3. Re:Don't see what Valve's problem is ... by Barny · · Score: 3, Informative

    They already can process refunds, I know that.

    The case is in regards to them advertising that there are no refunds allowed, they are most certainly NOT allowed to do that. Note, if the product is not of merchantable quality, they can also be refunded (so no more buying a game that runs terribly or crashes a lot).

    --
    ...
    /me sighs