The Federal Court of Australia has hit Sony with a $3.5 million fine for trying to deny customers a refund after they purchased “faulty” games.
We’re not told exactly what games these four customers purchased that they considered “faulty,” but Gamespot notes that the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission (ACCC) ordered EBGames to refund customers who purchased Fallout 76 at launch and found the game to be… well, bad.
According to a statement issued by the ACCC, this year-long court battle has come to a conclusion with the Federal Court of Australia issuing a $3.5 million fine to Sony Europe over misleading refund practices. Four customers were told that they couldn’t be refunded for digitally-purchased games and that they couldn’t get a refund if it had been longer than two weeks since the purchase date.
“Consumer guarantee rights do not expire after a digital product has been downloaded and certainly do not disappear after 14 days or any other arbitrary date claimed by a game store or developer,” said ACCC chair Rod Sims in a statement. The court agreed that Sony had broken Australian consumer protection laws and slapped the company with a hefty fine.
Sony will also have to pay a portion of the ACCC’s legal costs.
Source: ACCC, Gamespot
