Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Valve Corporation

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a lawsuit against Valve Corporation in the Federal Court, challenging Valve's business practices in relation to the sale and distribution of computer games on its Steam platform. The primary dispute centres around Valve's conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, specifically provisions related to consumer guarantees and misleading or deceptive conduct. The ACCC sought to set aside a Notice to Admit Facts that Valve had issued, arguing that the anticipated defences it contained were not relevant to the issues in the trial.

The legal issues before the court involved whether the surrounding circumstances of the facts could be considered when determining the relevance of the matters in the Notice to Admit, and whether the Notice to Admit was correctly based on the anticipated defence that was not alleged. The court had to decide whether the surrounding circumstances, which were not known or reasonably knowable by both parties, could be considered under the law applicable to the claims. Additionally, the court needed to determine the proper law applicable to the claims under the Australian Consumer Law.

The court found that the surrounding circumstances could not be considered if they were not known or reasonably knowable by both parties, and that the Notice to Admit was not correctly based on the anticipated defence that was not alleged. The court held that all cited authorities opposed the proposition that surrounding circumstances could be considered when they were not known or reasonably knowable by both parties. Therefore, the Notice to Admit was set aside, and the court emphasised that any future applications concerning reliance on expert evidence should carefully consider issues of relevance.

The court ordered that the respondent's Notice to Admit dated 10 June 2015 be set aside and that the respondent pay the applicant's costs of the hearing and preparation for the hearing. The entry of orders was governed by Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.