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264 The fourth representation was misleading, contrary to s 18(1) and s 29(1)(m) of the Australian Consumer Law. I do not conclude that it was false. The representation when read with the SSA which it incorporated was literally true for the reasons explained above, although it was misleading.
Representation 5 (in the 2014–2015 Steam Refund Policy)
265 The fifth alleged representation is that in the 2014–2015 Refund Policy, Valve represented that consumers had no entitlement to a refund or replacement for digital downloaded video games they had purchased from Valve via the Steam website or Steam unless required by local law (No Entitlement to Refund or Replacement Unless Required by Local Law Representation).
266 From July 2014 to the commencement of proceedings, the Steam website contained content which included the following statements:
| July 2014 to commencement of proceedings | Steam Refund Policy As with most software products, unless required by local law, we do not offer refunds or exchanges on games, DLC or in-game items purchased on our website or through Steam Client. Please review section 3 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement for more information. |
267 The material difference between representation 5 and representation 4, considered above, is the words "unless required by local law". Valve submitted that those words had the effect that the representations were not misleading because they were expressly made subject to local laws.
268 Although the expression "local law" is not defined anywhere in the Steam Refund Policy (or the SSA) a reasonable consumer would have understood that Valve's games were provided worldwide and that the website was worldwide. A reasonable consumer would have inferred that "local laws" was a reference to the laws governing the consumer in his or her location.
269 In particular, it was not stated expressly anywhere on the Steam website, on Steam or in the SSA that "local law" in the case of Australian consumers, being the Australian Consumer Law, conferred upon Australian Consumers an entitlement to a refund or replacement where the computer game did not meet the consumer guarantee of acceptable quality in s 54 of the Australian Consumer Law.
