Valve fined in Australia for refusing refunds

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Valve has been fined three million Australian dollars (roughly £1,764,130.76) for refusing refunds, and also for misleading customers.

Valve's general counsel Karl Quackenbush told that the court the company did not obtain legal advice when it set up in Australia. This lack of interest in Australian laws and lack of cooperation encouraged judge James Edelman to impose a penalty 12 times more than Valve Corporation suggested it should pay, which was 250,000 dollars.

Steam must now introduce a compliance program and place a notice in size 14 type letters on its Australia website informing consumers about their rights.

According to Edelman the subscriber contracts on Steam's website were designed to ensure Steam did not offer consumers any refunds, and Australian customers ticked a box agreeing to Steam's terms and conditions. It was ticked 24.9 million times between 2011 and 2014 and it was "impossible to calculate the precise number of consumers who were affected by the misrepresentations".

It is very probable that now Valve will take extra cautionary measures while doing business in Australia, especially with the introduction of a compliance program.