France Fine Steam And Uplay For Bad Refund Policies
Both Steam and Uplay have refund policies based on game purchases through their online portals. They do, however, have rather specific rules to how these are applied. For example, on Steam it’s largely based on how long you have played the game. Uplay is a little more ‘personal’ in their decisions. Either way though, getting a refund can sometimes be simple, but on other occasions, it can be difficult.
In a report via PCGamesN, however, France is looking to take legal action against both companies for being too slow in issuing refund payments!
Storefront Warnings
It is suggested in the report that both Storefront pages (accessed in France) now both carry a disclaimer saying that neither website is compliant with French consumer laws over refunds. In addition, it is believed that Uplay has been fined €180,000, while Valve has been hit €147,000. Exactly why Uplay was fined more is unclear, but as above, in my experience, their refund policy is a lot more difficult and definitely slower.
What Is The Issue?
France’s consumer law requires that a refund should be issued anything up to 14-days from purchase. Steam does follow this, but only based on a playtime of fewer than two hours. Uplay has no refund policy at all regarding digital purchases. As above, in my experience they tend to issue refunds based on their own perception of the request.
With the disclaimers now in place on the storefronts now (saying that they are not-compliant) this is a workaround for both sales portals. It wasn’t as if they could change their overall policy based on one countries law.
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
