After the Australian Federal Court found Valve to have made misleading representations about consumer guarantees on Steam earlier this year, they are now arguing that Valve should be fined $3 million.
The case revolves around Valve making false or misleading claims about refund policies for Australian consumers during 2011 to 2014. “Valve Corporation (Valve), through its online game distribution platform Steam, and its Steam website, engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations to Australian consumers about the consumer guarantees, under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL)”.
In a hearing last Tuesday, the ACCC said Valve should be fined $3 million, “in order to achieve both specific and general deterrents, and also because of the serious nature of the conduct”.
While Valve’s attorneys argued in favour of a $250,000 thousand fine and said there was “no finding that Valve’s conduct was intended to mislead or deceive consumers”.
We are set to hear a final ruling on the case and fine for Valve from Justice Edelman, by mid-December or January. Regardless of the outcome, Australians are now entitled to refunds on Steam.
