Australia fines Sony $2.4m over 'false and misleading' PlayStation refund policy

Is a “faulty” digital copy of a game subject to the same consumer guarantees as a disc copy? Yes, if you’re in Australia.

Digital purchase refund policies can be kind of inconsistent from one vendor to the next. Over the last five years or so, as digital copies of games have increasingly replaced discs, refunds have been issued mostly at the vendor’s discretion, and on its own terms – often promoted as a sort of charitable gesture, and not a basic consumer guarantee.

But whatever the vendor’s refund policy, it can’t contravene a country’s consumer guarantees. And, in the case of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) vs Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe, the local Federal Court decided that PlayStation’s refund policy is a no-no.

According to its media statement, the ACCC sued Sony over “misleading representations to four consumers who believed they had purchased faulty PlayStation games” but were refused refunds because two weeks had passed since the purchase date. But that’s not how things work in Australia.

“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.

“What Sony told these consumers was false and does not reflect the consumer guarantee rights afforded to Australian consumers under the Australian Consumer Law.”

Sony has been ordered to pay a penalty of $2.4m (about $3.5m in Australian dollars, or R40.3m), no internet or TV for a week, and to go to its room and think about what it’s done.