Valve fined $3 million for breaching Australian consumer laws

The case against valve in Australia concerning Valve’s policy of not offering refunds between 2011 to 2014 has now concluded.

The Australian Federal court judged Valve to have disregarded Australian law and they had not taken action to ensure their policies were in-line with Australian law.

The SMH reports that Valve’s counsel told the court that they had not obtained legal advice when setting up Australian operations. This admittance landed Valve a fine twelve times larger than the $250,000 they had “suggested” to pay.

There are 2.2 million Steam Australian accounts and there were 21,124 tickets with the word refund from Australian IPs according to Justice Edelman.  Edelman did not sound impressed with the lack of a Steam refund policy.

“Yet it had a culture by which it formed a view without Australian legal advice that it was not subject to Australian law, and it was content to proceed to trade with Australian consumers without that advice and with the view that even if advice had been obtained that Valve was required to comply with Australian law the advice might have been ignored.”

It’s now thankfully easier to obtain refunds due to changes made to their policies.

Thanks Ericbrighteyes.