{"id":20998,"date":"2020-06-05T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2584941"},"modified":"2020-06-05T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:40:00","slug":"sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Companies based outside of Australia must still follow the Australian Consumer Law.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Four&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/sony-playstation-5-livestream-delay-185747934.html\" data-rapid_p=\"1\" data-v9y=\"1\">PlayStation<\/a>&nbsp;users in Australia contacted Sony Europe, believing that their downloaded games were faulty.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ps5-exclusives-vs-xbox-cross-gen-compatibility-030553022.html\" data-rapid_p=\"2\" data-v9y=\"1\">Sony<\/a>&nbsp;told those customers that the company did not have to refund them once a game was downloaded, or after 14 days had passed. That goes against the rights outlined in the country&rsquo;s Australian Consumer Law (ACL), and now&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/media-release\/sony-to-pay-35-million-penalty-for-misrepresenting-playstation-gamers%e2%80%99-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sony Europe must pay a fine<\/a>&nbsp;of $2.4 million ($3.5 million in Australian dollars).<\/p>\n<div id=\"engadget-post-contents\" class=\"o-article_block pb-15 pb-5@m- o-subtle_divider\" data-ylk=\"sec:postcontents;slk:Sony%20fined%20%242.4%20million%20over%20illegal%20return%20policy%20in%20Australia;elm:link;itc:0;\">\n<div class=\"grid@tl+\">\n<div class=\"grid@tl+__cell col-8-of-12@tl+\">\n<div class=\"article-text c-gray-1\">\n<p>Sony told one of those four customers that they would have to request a refund from the game&rsquo;s publisher, rather than Sony itself. Furthermore, it told a fifth customer that it would only refund them in virtual PlayStation Network credit, rather than money. Between October 2017 and May 2019, Sony Europe&rsquo;s terms of service implied that consumers had no guaranteed recourse regarding &ldquo;the quality, functionality, completeness, accuracy or performance&rdquo; of the software they downloaded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"o-article_block pb-15 pb-5@m- mt-n35 mt-n25@m mt-n15@s\">\n<div class=\"grid@tl+\">\n<div class=\"full-width@tp- grid@tl+__cell col-8-of-12@tl+\">\n<div class=\"article-text c-gray-1 no-review\">\n<p>All of these actions go against the ACL, meaning Sony Europe can be fined &#8212; whether or not a company is headquartered in Australia is a moot point. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman, Rod Sims says, &ldquo;Consumers who buy digital products online have exactly the same rights as they would if they made the purchase at a physical store.&rdquo; $2.4 million sounds like a hefty fine, but hopefully this will lead Sony to better handle customer service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"tags\">\n<div><strong>See Campaign: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/sony-playstation-5-livestream-delay-185747934.html\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/sony-playstation-5-livestream-delay-185747934.html<\/a><br \/><b>Contact Information:<\/b><br \/>Marc DeAngelis<\/p>\n<p><b>Tags:<\/b><br \/><a href=\"\"><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/news-category\/wire\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Wire<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/global-regions\/united-states\/\" rel=\"category tag\">United States<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/category\/language\/english\/\" rel=\"category tag\">English<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"image\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"cwdfimg\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Contact Information:<\/h3>\n<p>Marc DeAngelis<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies based outside of Australia must still follow the Australian Consumer Law. Four&nbsp;PlayStation&nbsp;users in Australia contacted Sony Europe, believing that their downloaded games were faulty.&nbsp;Sony&nbsp;told those customers that the company did not have to refund them once a game was downloaded, or after 14 days had passed. That goes against the rights outlined in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\">Continue reading <span>Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-united-states","category-wire"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Companies based outside of Australia must still follow the Australian Consumer Law. Four&nbsp;PlayStation&nbsp;users in Australia contacted Sony Europe, believing that their downloaded games were faulty.&nbsp;Sony&nbsp;told those customers that the company did not have to refund them once a game was downloaded, or after 14 days had passed. That goes against the rights outlined in the &hellip; Continue reading Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia Continue Reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-05T22:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Waqas Awan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Waqas Awan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\",\"name\":\"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-05T22:40:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/46e7a3c31ebaa3d111acaa0daf39976f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/\",\"name\":\"Business\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/46e7a3c31ebaa3d111acaa0daf39976f\",\"name\":\"Waqas Awan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3453ff882f8bf8f7e605d09dc0750c5759cb895a2d09c18a38d07b424e7f6a29?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3453ff882f8bf8f7e605d09dc0750c5759cb895a2d09c18a38d07b424e7f6a29?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Waqas Awan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/fc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/author\/waqas-awan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business","og_description":"Companies based outside of Australia must still follow the Australian Consumer Law. Four&nbsp;PlayStation&nbsp;users in Australia contacted Sony Europe, believing that their downloaded games were faulty.&nbsp;Sony&nbsp;told those customers that the company did not have to refund them once a game was downloaded, or after 14 days had passed. That goes against the rights outlined in the &hellip; Continue reading Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia Continue Reading &rarr;","og_url":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/","og_site_name":"Business","article_published_time":"2020-06-05T22:40:00+00:00","author":"Waqas Awan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Waqas Awan","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/","url":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/","name":"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia - Business","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-05T22:40:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/46e7a3c31ebaa3d111acaa0daf39976f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/05\/sony-fined-2-4-million-over-illegal-return-policy-in-australia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sony fined $2.4 million over illegal return policy in Australia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/","name":"Business","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/46e7a3c31ebaa3d111acaa0daf39976f","name":"Waqas Awan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3453ff882f8bf8f7e605d09dc0750c5759cb895a2d09c18a38d07b424e7f6a29?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3453ff882f8bf8f7e605d09dc0750c5759cb895a2d09c18a38d07b424e7f6a29?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Waqas Awan"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/fc"],"url":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/author\/waqas-awan\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20999,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions\/20999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}