The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a statement specifically addressing an agreement with the local media outlet, EB Games. The statement decrees that buyers who have been denied a refund for Fallout 76 from the local software retailer are now legally entitled to receive their money back.
According to the statement released earlier by this Australian independent authority, all consumers who have contacted EB Games since the launch of Fallout 76 (14 November 2018) and November 2019 are now lawfully entitled to a refund if they have been denied one in the past.
The ACCC claims that the software outlet had been ‘misleading’ towards consumers in denying them refunds, an act which is in contravention of Australia’s Consumer Act.
Sarah Court, an ACCC commissioner, explains that customers were entitled to a refund given the broken and dysfunctional state of the Fallout 76’s launch, and that retailers must make an effort to familiarize themselves with an Australian consumer’s rights in such cases.
What is also interesting is that this news comes exactly 7 months after the ACCC issued a statement directly at ZeniMax Media Inc. (and its subsidiaries) for nearly the same reason.
Indeed, this news is perhaps relevant to only a subset of disgruntled, Australian Fallout 76 players, but I think the ACCC deserves kudos for relentlessly defending local consumers against corporate deception. It is a source of comfort that certain enforcers will make careless publishers answer for their misconduct.
Truth be told, I feel a little sorry for EB Games: Much like GameStop and other outlets, they were probably ordered by ZeniMax not to issue refunds. This doesn’t exonerate them from blame, but it seems they are the only ones that are paying for that mistake right now.
After that being said, at the time of writing there were more than TWELVE THOUSAND players on the Steam version alone, so perhaps many do not want refunds anyway?
You can read more on ZeniMax’s refund policy here.
Pieter hails all the way from the tip of southern Africa and suffers from serious PC technophilia. Therapists say it is incurable. Now he has to remind himself constantly that gaming doesn’t count as a religion even if DRM is the devil. Thankfully, writing reviews sometimes helps with the worst symptoms.