The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken the side of the consumers when it comes to whether or not people are entitled to a refund after purchasing Fallout 76. ZeniMax Media, the owner of Bethesda Game Studios, must offer refunds to Fallout 76 players who bought the game and requested a refund within a certain timeframe, according to a ruling from the ACCC. The Australian commission cited complaints received against the company and, within its ruling, said ZeniMax and its related branches “accepted that their actions were likely to have contravened the Australian Consumer Law.”
The ACCC published its ruling on the Fallout 76 refunds on its site and recounted the complaints levied against ZeniMax over the Fallout game. In the weeks and months following the game’s release, players requested refunds for Fallout 76 after finding it was not what they felt they’d been promised. Those requests for refunds and complaints cited server problems and graphics issues as a few of the frustrations players encountered.
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Players who requested refunds for those reasons were not always granted them based on ZeniMax’s discretion which is where the ACCC comes into play.
“ZeniMax has acknowledged that they are likely to have misled certain Australian consumers about their rights to a refund when they experienced faults with their Fallout 76 game,” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said in the published ruling.
To remedy this, the ACCC has ruled that ZeniMax must now provide refunds to people who contacted the publisher within a certain span of time.
“ZeniMax will offer to provide refunds to consumers who contacted them between 24 November 2018 and 1 June 2019 to request a refund and have not already received one,” the ACCC said. “Consumers who accept a refund will no longer be entitled to access and play the game.”
It’s a timeframe that spans several months and only applies to Australian players, but it’s still a welcome announcement for anyone that fits within that criteria. If you contacted ZeniMax within those months and said you wanted a refund for the disheveled Fallout 76, you’ll now be eligible for a refund.
Fallout 76 found itself in the crosshairs of the Fallout community once again after Bethesda launched its Fallout 1st subscription service. Fallout 76 players did not appreciate that announcement and made sure their thoughts were heard.
