Origin New EA Refund Policy In Regards To Australia

Atrayo · Apr 28, 2015

Hi Guys,

I saw this article by chance on the PC Gamer website. Regarding how Electronic Arts has altered its Origin refund policy in Australia due to some government agency called the "ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)".

Here's a full quote of the article linked above: (Dated today April 28th, 2015)

Tom Sykes PC Gamer said:

EA has changed its Origin refund policy in Australia, after the ACCC (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) made it clear its old one was breaking Australian consumer law. Origin's refund policy was already relatively generous, compared to Steam's at least, but if you've bought games on Origin from January 2012 onwards—and you live in Australia—you can now ask for a refund at any time, should those games turn out to be "faulty".

EA is in the process of setting up an 1800 phone number to deal with its new refund system, but in the meantime, your best bet is to hit up the Aussie Origin store if you're entitled to your money back.

Here's ACCC chairman Rod Sims detailing the commission's complaints with EA in a statement:

"It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that customers are not entitled to refunds under any circumstances. Where a product has a major failure, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their choice. Representations that this right has or can be excluded, restricted or modified are false or misleading."

And here's EA's statement on the matter, made to Kotaku:

"We’re pleased to have worked cooperatively with the ACCC to resolve the ACCC’s concerns and ensure our players in Australia have the best possible experience when purchasing and playing EA games. In addition to rights available to our players under the Australian Consumer Law, we are also proud to offer our global, industry-leading Great Game Guarantee that allows for digital returns within certain timeframes if anyone is not satisfied with a digitally-downloaded game from EA. (see: https://www.origin.com/en-au/great-game-guarantee for further details).”

As Kotaku points out, the ACCC is currently involved in litigation with Valve over precisely the same issue, although that case hasn't reached a conclusion yet. Hopefully, in a few years, the restrictive and consumer-unfriendly refund policies currently employed by many digital game stores will be a thing of the past—this seems like a good step forward.
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According to the article above the ACCC is also in litigation with Valve's Steam. For a similar alteration in their refund policy as well for Aussie consumers.

Chief · Apr 28, 2015

Now all they need to do is fix the prices

LavaCaverns · Apr 29, 2015

Removing the australia tax? NEVER
They make too much moneys to give us a fair price...

r8response · Apr 29, 2015

Chief said: ↑

Now all they need to do is fix the prices
Click to expand...

Use something like the Hola extension for Chrome and purchase via the Mexican Origin store

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Origin New EA Refund Policy In Regards To Australia

Atrayo Retired Captain

Chief Retired Captain

LavaCaverns Well-Known Member

r8response Well-Known Member

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