Australia’s federal court ruled that Valve, which operates a gaming site called Steam, engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by telling players in Australia that they were not going to be entitled to refunds for digital content that they downloaded.
Valve, which is not based in Australia, faces fines of over $1 million per breach.
The court found that the U.S. based company was not exempt from Australian consumer law just because it is a foreign online entity.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took legal action against Valve in 2014. The organization had an issue with Steam’s subscriber agreement and refund policy.
The ACCC took issue with Steam’s fine print, which at the time said that consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from Valve via Steam or Steam Client, regardless of what the circumstances were.
Rod Sims, the ACCC’s chairman, said that the court’s ruling shows that foreign-based businesses are still subjected to Australian consumer law.
Valve’s defense was based around the fact that it only provided Australians with access to an online access portal to video games through a client, and that it doesn’t officially do business in Australia. Valve maintained that Steam’s subscriber agreement is the law of Washington State, USA, and not the law of Australia.
A judge ruled that Valve was in fact doing business in Australia, which meant the company was bound to operate within the law. Sims said that the court held that based on the facts, Valve was doing business in Australia.
