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> Thanks to Australian customer protection laws, Steam has some of the most lenient refund policies among digital software stores. You can usually get a full re

> Thanks to Australian customer protection laws, Steam has some of the most lenient refund policies among digital software stores. You can usually get a full refund if your play time is less than a few hours. I think it’s actually worldwide?

DecentShoes 1y ago
Yes, but they did it because Australia forced them to.
- whilenot-dev 1y ago
  I doubt that, EU consumer rights already stated that "the consumer shall have a period of 14 days to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract". Steam purchases count as "digital content" in that case. [0]: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/oj#art_9.tit_1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/oj#art_9.tit_1
  - iggldiggl 1y ago
    In practice I've sometimes encountered that in the form of "either waive your right of withdrawal or else wait 14 days to download your content/activate your licence/etc.", though.
    - notpushkin 1y ago
      I don’t think that would fly in any EU court?
      - account42 1y ago
        It would and does. There is little (EU-wide) legal protection for consumers of digital content.
  - sunaookami 1y ago
    This is not true for digital purchases when you waive your rights to withdraw which you have to accept for digital storefronts. See under point 19).
  - account42 1y ago
    You can doubt whatever you want but the fact is Steam did NOT offer refunds until they were sued in Australia and lost. As for EU consumer rights, look at Article 16 (m) in the link you posted: > Exceptions from the right of withdrawal > Member States shall not provide for the right of withdrawal set out in Articles 9 to 15 in respect of distance and off-premises contracts as regards the following: > [...] > (m) the supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium if the performance has begun with the consumer’s prior express consent and his acknowledgment that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal.
- eps 1y ago
  Got a source for that?
  - a_victorp 1y ago
    They got sued (and lost) back in 2014 in Australia for not having a refund policy: https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-valves-official-statement-after-its-australian-refund-rights-loss https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-valves-official-stateme...
socalgal2 1y ago
Sony does not follow this, how are they getting away with it?
- notpushkin 1y ago
  My point is, this is just something Steam does, not something they are required to do (at least not everywhere).
  - notpushkin 1y ago
    Just for clarification: they are required to refund customers in some jurisdictions (apparently Australia was the reason, indeed), so they might have decided to do this for everybody a) out of the kindness of their heart (i.e. good public image), or b) just not to deal with complexity of introducing different refund schemas per region. Probably a mixture of both.
    - account42 1y ago
      Also c) to preempt additional regulation in more jurisdictions Steams refund policies are still fairly weak IMO. For many games, two hours doesn't really tell you much about the quality of the game and Steam also knows that many users will not get around to even trying games they pick up within the two weeks that they grant refunds for. Imagine you went to a physical store and bought something that turned out to be broken after a couple hours of use and the Store just said too bad. Absolutely unacceptable there but Steam reserves the right to and does often refuse refunds that are not within their stated limits. You also don't have as much leverage with Steam as you do with some random store. If a merchant fucks you over you are supposed to be able to reverse the transaction but with Steam trying that with even one game will get you banned from the store completely - and with Steam being a not-quite monopoly that means many games will literally be unavailable to you. AFAIK you also still cant refund Steam wallet "cash" into real money so if you bought a Steam wallet card in order to buy a Game and then want to refund that game you can effectively only exchange it for other Steam products which is not a real refund. IMO Steam gets a lot of undue credit just for not being quite as terrible as the competition.

DecentShoes 1y ago

Yes, but they did it because Australia forced them to.

whilenot-dev 1y ago
I doubt that, EU consumer rights already stated that "the consumer shall have a period of 14 days to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract". Steam purchases count as "digital content" in that case. [0]: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/oj#art_9.tit_1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/83/oj#art_9.tit_1
- iggldiggl 1y ago
  In practice I've sometimes encountered that in the form of "either waive your right of withdrawal or else wait 14 days to download your content/activate your licence/etc.", though.
  - notpushkin 1y ago
    I don’t think that would fly in any EU court?
    - account42 1y ago
      It would and does. There is little (EU-wide) legal protection for consumers of digital content.
- sunaookami 1y ago
  This is not true for digital purchases when you waive your rights to withdraw which you have to accept for digital storefronts. See under point 19).
- account42 1y ago
  You can doubt whatever you want but the fact is Steam did NOT offer refunds until they were sued in Australia and lost. As for EU consumer rights, look at Article 16 (m) in the link you posted: > Exceptions from the right of withdrawal > Member States shall not provide for the right of withdrawal set out in Articles 9 to 15 in respect of distance and off-premises contracts as regards the following: > [...] > (m) the supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium if the performance has begun with the consumer’s prior express consent and his acknowledgment that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal.
eps 1y ago
Got a source for that?
- a_victorp 1y ago
  They got sued (and lost) back in 2014 in Australia for not having a refund policy: https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-valves-official-statement-after-its-australian-refund-rights-loss https://www.techradar.com/news/heres-valves-official-stateme...

socalgal2 1y ago

Sony does not follow this, how are they getting away with it?

notpushkin 1y ago
My point is, this is just something Steam does, not something they are required to do (at least not everywhere).
- notpushkin 1y ago
  Just for clarification: they are required to refund customers in some jurisdictions (apparently Australia was the reason, indeed), so they might have decided to do this for everybody a) out of the kindness of their heart (i.e. good public image), or b) just not to deal with complexity of introducing different refund schemas per region. Probably a mixture of both.
  - account42 1y ago
    Also c) to preempt additional regulation in more jurisdictions Steams refund policies are still fairly weak IMO. For many games, two hours doesn't really tell you much about the quality of the game and Steam also knows that many users will not get around to even trying games they pick up within the two weeks that they grant refunds for. Imagine you went to a physical store and bought something that turned out to be broken after a couple hours of use and the Store just said too bad. Absolutely unacceptable there but Steam reserves the right to and does often refuse refunds that are not within their stated limits. You also don't have as much leverage with Steam as you do with some random store. If a merchant fucks you over you are supposed to be able to reverse the transaction but with Steam trying that with even one game will get you banned from the store completely - and with Steam being a not-quite monopoly that means many games will literally be unavailable to you. AFAIK you also still cant refund Steam wallet "cash" into real money so if you bought a Steam wallet card in order to buy a Game and then want to refund that game you can effectively only exchange it for other Steam products which is not a real refund. IMO Steam gets a lot of undue credit just for not being quite as terrible as the competition.