Sony loses court case involving PlayStation Store refunds in Australia, results in $2.4 million fine

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After nearly a year in court, an Australian court case against Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe has wrapped up and come to a conclusion. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Sony to court over its digital game refund policies, claiming that they were false and misleading to consumers. Four different users had purchased "faulty" PlayStation games and had been refused refunds, as the games were bought digitally on the PlayStation Store, and according to Sony, were not able to be refunded as more than 14 days had passed since the date of purchase. This breached Australia's Consumer Law rights, which determined that consumers who buy products that don't function as promised or "have a major fault" are able to receive full refunds to their original payment method, even if they are digital goods.

“Consumers who buy digital products online have exactly the same rights as they would if they made the purchase at a physical store,” Mr Sims said.

“No matter where in the world a company has its headquarters, if it is selling to Australian consumers, the Australian Consumer Law applies.”

As a result of breaching ACL rights, Sony EU has been fined $3.5 million AUD (2.4m USD) in penalty fines.

:arrow: Source
 

DbGt

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How can a digital game be faulty? and they had 14 days to get a full refund, which i think is more than enough for a digital game. I dont see Sony doing anything wrong here
 
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depaul

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I never understood how those courts' astronomical refunds are calculated.

If Sony agreed to refund those 4 costumers it shouldn't have costed them more than 100$.
 
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How can a digital game be faulty?and they had 14 days to get a full refund, which i think is more than enough for a digital game

It can happen
I bought the PS2 classics rygar on PS3 and it had terrible input lag because of the bad PS2 emulation
It gets even worse in certain parts, which made some bosses almost unbeatable.

About the time, it can happen
Especially with how finnicky PlayStation consoles are about internal memory, at least on PS3, you have to reserve double the space you need for the game you want to install so it's a pain in the ass.
If it's a big game, it can take a while for someone to clear up all that space.
I've been wanting to reinstall Yakuza 5 on my console for a long time but haven't gotten around to it because of all the games I'll have to uninstall for it (despite having enough free space for the game itself )
 

gamesquest1

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How can a digital game be faulty? and they had 14 days to get a full refund, which i think is more than enough for a digital game. I dont see Sony doing anything wrong here
mis-sold/false advertising, i.e game claims to have 16 levels and when you reach level 13 the game crashes and is/or unplayable, its perfectly understandable some games are dog shite and people who buy them should be able to get a refund
I never understood how those courts' astronomical refunds are calculated.

If Sony agreed to refund those 4 costumers it shouldn't have costed them more than 100$.
its a penalty to encourage them to not be greedy and just refund next time, im sure Sony will think twice next time and just refund the $100 instead of being hit with a massive bill including a ton of lawyers fees on top

to be honest there was probably quite a few more than 4 people refused a refund for broken games, its just that 4 people took it to court
 
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DbGt

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It can happen
I bought the PS2 classics rygar on PS3 and it had terrible input lag because of the bad PS2 emulation
It gets even worse in certain parts, which made some bosses almost unbeatable.

About the time, it can happen
Especially with how finnicky PlayStation consoles are about internal memory, at least on PS3, you have to reserve double the space you need for the game you want to install so it's a pain in the ass.
If it's a big game, it can take a while for someone to clear up all that space.
I've been wanting to reinstall Yakuza 5 on my console for a long time but haven't gotten around to it because of all the games I'll have to uninstall for it (despite having enough free space for the game itself )

mis-sold/false advertising, i.e game claims to have 16 levels and when you reach level 13 the game crashes and is/or unplayable, its perfectly understandable some games are dog shite and people who buy them should be able to get a refund

Didnt think about it this, I guess you have a point.
 
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DBlaze

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"an Australian court case against Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe"
What does Australia have to do with the european store though?
 

campbell0505

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"an Australian court case against Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe"
What does Australia have to do with the european store though?

Not sure about PlayStation, but Nintendo usually classifies Australia in their Europe department, we usually get the same sales as Europe and other things. Of cause, this is Nintendo, not Sony, but it could be something like this on playstation.
 
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peteruk

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After nearly a year in court, an Australian court case against Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe has wrapped up and come to a conclusion. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Sony to court over its digital game refund policies, claiming that they were false and misleading to consumers. Four different users had purchased "faulty" PlayStation games and had been refused refunds, as the games were bought digitally on the PlayStation Store, and according to Sony, were not able to be refunded as more than 14 days had passed since the date of purchase. This breached Australia's Consumer Law rights, which determined that consumers who buy products that don't function as promised or "have a major fault" are able to receive full refunds to their original payment method, even if they are digital goods.



As a result of breaching ACL rights, Sony EU has been fined $3.5 million AUD (2.4m USD) in penalty fines.

:arrow: Source

Pleased with this result, I strongly dislike $ony as a company
 

yoyoyo69

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I never understood how those courts' astronomical refunds are calculated.

If Sony agreed to refund those 4 costumers it shouldn't have costed them more than 100$.

They weren't fined the cost of 4 customer's refunds. They were fined for breaching legislation, a small fine to be honest given the user base it affected.
 

JustBrandonT

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How can a digital game be faulty? and they had 14 days to get a full refund, which i think is more than enough for a digital game. I dont see Sony doing anything wrong here

I bought COD Modern Warfare 2 because it was advertised as having multiplayer (should have checked Reddit or somewhere first, but I didn't).
I downloaded it and it didn't have it. The same day I messaged Sony for a refund.. I was told: "Since the game has already been downloaded or streamed, we cannot refund it as per Sony Policy".. So in reality, even just downloading it means you can't return it anymore.. Greedy fucks.. My chat-log is below:

Mario H.:Thank you for contacting PlayStation, my name is Mario H. how may I assist you today?
Remember: Please do not refresh your screen as it will disconnect the chat session. Thanks!
Me: Hi, I'm trying to return a recent purchase of Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered because it has no local multiplayer. Then I will purchase Call Of Duty Black Ops instead.
Mario H.:Good afternoon! I will be more than glad working with you on your refund request today!
Mario H.:I would really appreciate your help with the following details for update and verification on our records please:


-Name(s) of the content you need refund for "or" date and amount of the transaction
-Refund ID (from our website pre qualification
Me: Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® Game | 9.37GB | 5/27/2020 Playable On: PS4
Mario H.:Thank you for those details, can you also provide the following details:

-Reason for the refund request
-First and last name
-Email address you have access to
-Phone number

Me:Reason: I saw on their website that it had multiplayer but once downloaded, it does NOT have multiplayer. :(

Me: **** is my name.

Me:Email: *****@gmail.com

Mario H.:Thank you so much for sharing those details, we appreciate it you take your time to contact us, we will do our best in order to assist you, please if you have any questions or dounts of the process, let me know!

Me: ******* is my phone number.

Mario H.:According to our records the content has been downloaded/streamed. I'm sorry, due to the restrictions outlined in the PlayStation Store Cancellation Policy; a refund cannot be made for this transaction.

Mario H.:But this is not the last time you can contact us to ask this type of request, I would strongly recommend you to check our cancellation policies, read it carefully so you'll have more knowledge to know when we can complete it, https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/legal/cancellation-policy/?language=en_US

Me:but I haven't played it. It doesn't even have multiplayer or anything and it's only been 1 day since I purchased it and 10 minutes since downloading :S

Mario H.:Believe me that we're doing our best to give you the best options on this situation, of course this time it's not a good news and this is not the outcome we expect to provide you with.

Because of the restrictions outlined in the PlayStation Store Cancellation Policy; a refund cannot be made for this transaction and because of that we offer our most sincere apologies for this, we know you're very nice and kind we hope you could understand. However, if there is something in our hands to try to help you with anything else it will be a pleasure to check for you in regards of any other request or question.

Me:Well that's all I wanted. I simply did not want this game.

Mario H.:We're sorry for this situation our intention is to help you as much as I can and we don't want this to be complicated or more frustrating, and I do place myself in your position. Unfortunately, as per PlayStation Network’s terms of service, the PlayStation Store Cancellation Policy; a refund cannot be made for this transaction.

In this case, I have double checked what other options we have but we have exhausted them all. As per policies a refund can’t be granted. Having mentioned that information I would like to know if besides that, do you have any other question or request for me today?

Me:Is it possible to CHANGE the game then? To something else?

Me:If it can't be refunded, surely it can be exchanged.

Mario H.:We're very sorry, Believe me that it's not the final answer we wished to provide you with, however we kindly addressed all your questions in this matter, please let me know if before we say goodbye you have a different request than this one so we can continue assisting you.

Me:The new question is whether or not it can be exchanged as it's not a refund and that part isn't in the policy.
Mario H.:We do understand but in this case allow me to tell you that we cannot chnage the content, I hope you understand.

Mario H.:Thank you for chatting with us today! We hope you have a great day!

Hangs up on me.

Policy is here (same link as the one in the above chat-log): https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/legal/cancellation-policy/#games

Why the policy is stupid? Because you will NEVER know if the game is faulty if can't download it. And if you download it, you can't refund it.. So it's entirely up to them to determine if it's faulty or not and that's the verdict. If you do a charge back on your card, you will get banned from PSN permanently. So as a gamer, you're completely fucked here.

Because of this experience, I am no longer buy any digital games and I'm possibly going to avoid buying the PS5 if the XBox is better OR stick to PC.. Very sad because my PS4 library is extremely large.. I didn't expect I'd have any trouble returning just ONE game in the last 7 years!
 
Last edited by JustBrandonT,

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