The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Valve. The ACCC claims that Valve has not met certain consume guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). Now, despite not having any physical presence in Australia, Valve must still observe Australian law when selling goods or services to Australian residents.

Rod Sims of the ACCC details how Valve's policy on refunds is a breach of ACL.
"It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that they do not give refunds under any circumstances, including for gifts and during sales. Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their option if a product has a major fault."

The ACCC will use these various ideas to go after Valve:
  • consumers were not entitled to a refund for any games sold by Valve via Steam in any circumstances;
  • Valve had excluded, restricted or modified statutory guarantees and/or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality;
  • Valve was not under any obligation to repair, replace or provide a refund for a game where the consumer had not contacted and attempted to resolve the problem with the computer game developer; and
  • the statutory consumer guarantees did not apply to games sold by Valve.

According to PC Gamer, the lawsuit will hit the Sydney courts on October 7.