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Steam Fined $3 Million For Refusing Refunds (smh.com.au)
Gaming company Valve Corporation has been hit with a $3 million fine after the Federal Court found its online games site Steam breached Australian Consumer Laws. From a report: The court imposed the maximum fine requested by Australia's competition regulator because of Valve's disregard for Australian law and lack of contrition. Valve's general counsel, Karl Quackenbush, told the court the company did not obtain legal advice when it set up in Australia, and did not check its obligations until the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission got involved in April 2014. It only provided staff verbal instructions. This lack of interest in Australian laws and lack of cooperation encouraged Justice James Edelman to impose a pentaly 12 times more than Valve Corporation suggested it pay.
Damn straight. Let's get the government out of the affairs of business entirely. No more consumer protection and no more business protection. Including no more court-enforced debt collection, garnishment, or intellectual property rights. If a business can't pry the money out of my hands, market itself out of "consumer confusion" by counterfeit products, and make their product uncopyable, them screw 'em. It should be the consumer's choice on how they deal with business, and businesses are free to decide whether they wante to enter the market or not.
Legal protections are part of a compact between businesses and their customers. They must protect both sides. Otherwise, there's nothing to convince the unprotected side to respect the protected side except raw force.
"During the case the court heard Valve did in fact offer more than 15,000 refunds if a customer was unable to install a game, or unable to play it, or where a subscriber purchased the wrong version of a game by mistake."
So WTF are Aussies fining Steam $3M? Because they can't beat Pac-Man?
Gaming may not be a right, but under the Australia Consumer Law, refunds on products that fail to meet reasonable expectations are. Valve was being stupid.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Nazis are leftist.
Really? Do tell!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Hahaha... Actually, you leftist progressive nutjobs skewed the political spectrum a while back because it was really hard to sound reasonable when you were arguing against conservative centrists as a left wing socialist progressive. The correct and original political spectrum looks like this:
- Left wing: totalitarian government involved in all aspects of daily life
Examples: Nazi (new socialists), socialists, fascists, progressive left, etc
- Centrists: limited government to do what is needed for the common good (military, legal system, roads, etc.)
Example: conservatives (those advocating for minimal change from status quo)
- Right wing: minimal or no government (Libertarians)
Extreme examples: anarchists
Nazi/fascist/socialists are all cut from the same cloth. They all want totalitarian governments that have massive power and control over your daily life. How someone marked the AC post above informative just shows how effective the propaganda and brainwashing of the main stream media and higher education together are.
The sad truth is that the Aussies and UK for example are both less free than they were 40 years ago, with a bigger nanny state. They both gave up their guns as one example, but violent crime increased dramatically, doubling in the UK from pre ban years. (The gun grabbing facists try to conflate and confuse by citing "gun crime" as down, which is true when all guns are confiscated, but as a citizen, do you care if you are robbed or murdered with a machete or a gun? no you care that you were assaulted, which is twice as likely after gun bans).
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like