According to Australia, Valve’s “lack of contrition” and disregard for Australian law ever since setting up in the country is going to cost the company big-time: a court has ruled that it must pay a fine of US $2.15 million. The fine is the maximum requested by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, against which Valve lost a legal case earlier this year.
Valve was first sued by the ACCC in 2014 because it did not offer the consumer guarantees Australian law requires.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “Valve's general counsel 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.”
"Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their option if a product has a major fault," ACCC chairman Rod Sims stated when the case first began. But back in mid-2014, the complaint states that Valve said it had no obligation to provide refunds at all, for any reason.
Valve's refund policy has done an about-face since then, but the judge didn’t care.
"Valve is a United States company with 2.2 million Australian accounts which received 21,124 tickets in the relevant period containing the word 'refund' from consumers with Australian IP addresses," stated Justice James Edelman in his ruling. "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."
Valve offered to pay a $250,000 fine which the judge dismissed as something that “would barely be noticed.”
On top of the fine, Valve must post a notice on its Australian web site informing consumers of their rights. Even the font size is specified: size 14.
How do you feel about the Australian ruling against Valve? Feel free to discuss Valve’s legal troubles in the land down under in our comments section below.
