The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) has filed legal action against Valve in an Australian Federal Court for misleading consumers over warranties and refunds the company offers through Steam. It's alleged that in misleading consumers, Valve has breached Australian Consumer Law.
The ACCC states that Valve mislead consumers by claiming they were "not entitled to a refund for any games sold by Valve via Steam in any circumstances". Valve also allegedly stated, wrongly, that it was not obligated to refund games if a consumer hadn't contacted the game developers about the issue first.
Despite being an American company with no physical presence in Australia, by selling games to Australian consumers through Steam, Valve must adhere to Australian Consumer Law. Part of this consumer law states that buyers are entitled to a refund if their product has a "major fault", and companies such as Valve cannot state that they do not offer such refunds.
Valve's Doug Lombardi released a statement regarding the ACCC's action, claiming that refunds on games are not offered through Steam unless required by local law, as stated in the Steam Subscriber Agreement. However, after a brief review, it doesn't appear that the agreement actually states that consumers can get a refund if local law requires it, so the ACCC appears to have a case here.
In the time being, Valve is "making every effort to cooperate with the Australian officials", and will continue to provide Steam services to Australians. Court predecings will begin in Sydney on October 7, 2014, with the ACCC seeking financial penalties and various declarations.
