The battle rages on between Valve, the creators of Steam, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over a lawsuit that began in 2014. Valve has filed an appeal against a $2.4 million fine that was issued after the company was found guilty by the court over its Steam refund policy.
As reported by Gamasutra, this appeal by Valve is an attempt to buy time in this lengthy lawsuit against the ACCC. Though a guilty verdict and the fine was already given, the company has requested a “special leave” from the court that will allow it to attempt to overturn this verdict once again.
From here, it is now up to the High Court of Australia to either move forward with Valve’s appeal or dismiss it. In the meantime, the original verdict and the associated fine will be put on hold. The creator of Steam has already lost one appeal in the time since the lawsuit began.
This lawsuit all started in August 2014 when the ACCC sued Valve over its lack of a detailed Steam refund policy. The Federal Court of Australia ruled the case in favor of the ACCC, noting that Valve is guilty of “intentionally excluding statutory guarantees and deliberately modifying warranties.”
Steam’s refund policies have since changed in recent years, now giving consumers the chance to refund any game they purchase within 14 days of the transaction. You also can’t have the played the game for more than two hours. This is a stark change from its previous policy of no refunds whatsoever that it was originally sued for in 2014.
