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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.

12 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. G'Day Valve, by mjwx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I bought ya Bioshock Infinite game on sale last weekend.

    It's shithouse, I want me 22 bucks back ya flamin mongrels.

    Yours sincerely,
    Alf Flamin Stuart.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  2. 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Reading about the US I really like consumer protection laws in Germany. Everything is so much more consumer friendly and open. Companies have to identify themselves (i.e. have an imprint), all taxes have to be included in prices and if you buy something you have all kinds of rights (two week period to send stuff back/cancel contracts, two year warranty on physical items and such) that cannot be taken away by ToSs.

      It's such a different culture. US companies often struggle because they're used to the whole "corporations first" mindset.

    3. 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.

  3. Re:Bad business practice by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The time you lost complaining also cost you more than the $10 you are claiming back.

    Perhaps the satisfaction in, in some small way, causing trouble for a company that has treated him unfairly is also worth more than $10 to him.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  4. Good, now for EA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While they're at it they need to look into EA's Origin Sales. They're charging GST on an overseas sale (origin sales are all through EA Switzerland).

  5. Umm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm Australian, I live in Australia, I have successfully received a refund from a game on steam before...

    Has anyone tried this recently to verify this is now the case? because I've absolutely received a refund (in steam credit, admittedly - not a cash/credit refund) for The War Z about 12 months ago.

    1. Re:Umm by Barny · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, but they don't give you the refund because of consumer law, they give it to shut you up.

      I have gotten refunds off them in the past, and mentioned this law in the request and they stated it doesn't apply to them. I guess the ACCC think otherwise.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
  6. 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.

  7. 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
  8. Re:Bad business practice by BitZtream · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It doesn't show them 'by default'. The opening page is a list of games for your platform, if you browse to a different category or search for a game, you're taking deliberate action to do so. Make sure you search for Mac games if you want to buy games for a Mac, and make sure its badged for Mac.

    Mac Steam doesn't start you in the Windows or Linux games page.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager