Digital Content - Strengthening Consumer Rights

Recently I purchased, at different times, two games through Playstation Network's marketplace. Both were effectively defective and unfit for purpose for various reasons but, in both cases, a refund was refused. I found out that Playstation likes to refuse refunds and tries to make things difficult for anyone requesting a refund.

In the end I contacted my bank and requested a chargeback and received my money back for both games. The main problem with this story is how a company could refuse a refund for a product (each time) despite knowing about the problems that should have kept the game from being released until it was suitable to be sold to the public.

The law has changed and we now have the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but this doesn't go far enough in protecting the rights of consumers when they're purchasing digital content. To make matters worse, companies like to believe they're above the law so they word their terms and conditions in an attempt to avoid any legal liability.

Luckily for me I am a law student and a political activist so I didn't back down and am looking into possible legal action against the company as well as trying to get the law strengthened to protect others who may not be aware of their rights in cases such as this. There will always be businesses that try to get away with ripping off customers, I hope we can one day have a way of making it clear to all they have rights and that they can protect themselves from losing out.

I didn't want to go into too much detail and bore you all, the purpose of this post is to remind you that you have options when dealing with businesses and you can win against them.