Valve Given $3m Fine by Australian Federal Court Over Refund Policy

Earlier this year Valve was found guilty of breaking Australian Consumer Law, and the Australian Federal Court aren’t taking that lightly with their decision that Valve should pay up a whopping $3 million fine. I’m sure Valve has the cash for that with plenty to spare, but that kind of response isn’t an easy pill to swallow. For years Valve operated without a decent refund policy in place, and it’s this period between 2011 and 2014 that was thrown into question.

Speaking of the fine, the court said that “in order to achieve both specific and general deterrents, and also because of the serious nature of the conduct”. However, Valve’s own lawyers were pushing for a $250,000 fine stating that there was “no finding that Valve’s conduct was intended to mislead or deceive consumers”.

Valve has until the end of January to settle the amount, which may give them time to fight back on the ruling, but for now it seems like they’ll have to pay up for being in breach of the Consumer Law in that period. Naturally, Valve has since made improvements to their refund service, even becoming one of the best in the business for it, but it seems it was too little too late in this case.

Have you used the Steam/Valve refund service since it was introduced? How to you find it compared to the services offered by other game distribution platform? Let us know in the comments!