Valve facing $3m fine for breaking Australian consumer law

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) wants to fine Valve for the lack of a refund policy on their online storefront Steam. The ACCC wants to find Valve $3m after Valve lost a court case that’s stretched on over the course of three years.

Steam users are now entitled to a refund, however, when the lawsuit was originally filed by the ACCC, Steam didn’t yet have a proper refund system in place. This was against Australian consumer law, and while Valve argued that it was an American company with a global user base and as such didn’t need to adhere to the same rules. The courts ruled against Steam, and now the total fine for the company has to be decided.

The ACCC were also insisting that Valve set up a 1-800 number for Valve to deal with refund requests from Australian customers quicker, however they conceded this would be impractical to set up.

The presiding Justice Edelman has informed the courts that a final ruling on penalties and any potential injunctions would be handed down either in December or January.