Steam Vs. Australia: Valve Fined $3 Million For Failing To Give Refunds To Australian Steam Users

The annual Steam winter sale is under way, and the company has additional motivation to sell as many games as possible following a court ruling in Australia that has saddled the service’s parent company with a $3 million fine for refusing refunds to gamers, according to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald.

Valve Corporation, the company behind the popular Steam digital distribution platform, was hit with the maximum fine requested by Australia's competition regulator after the nation’s Federal Court found Steam to be in breach of Australian consumer laws.

Steam was found to be ignoring requests for refunds from Australian consumers who purchased games over the platform. According to a court ruling issued in May, Steam told its Australian users they were not entitled to a refund and weren’t subject to minimum quality guarantees.

Justice James Edelman of Australia’s Federal Court indicated Steam had received 21,124 tickets containing the word “refund” from Australian IP addresses, many of which went ignored or unfulfilled.

Valve argued it did fulfill 15,000 refund requests, specifically for users who couldn’t install or play a game or purchased the wrong title.

A page dedicated to information on Steam’s refunds policy on its website states users can request a refund “for any reason,” ranging from the game not running on the user’s computer to being dissatisfied with the game after playing it for up to two hours.

Valve also told the court it didn’t obtain legal advice when opening its service to Australian users and didn’t know its obligations until the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began looking into the platform’s consumer guarantee practices in March 2014.

The plea of ignorance did not move the judge, who decided to fine the company $3 million—12 times the $250,000 figure Valve suggested be its punishment.

"[Valve] 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," Justice Edelman said in his decision.

Steam, which has 2.2 million users registered in Australia, will be required to introduce a new compliance program and place a notice—shown in size 14 font—on its Australian website to make consumers aware of their rights.

Valve did not respond to request for comment on the ruling.