The ACCC and Valve Corporation are scheduled to attend a mediation facilitated by the Federal Court of Australia on 1 April 2015.

If the mediation doesn’t result in a settlement, the Court has set aside 3 days for a trial on the issue of liability at the end of July 2015.

We have canvassed the legal issues in dispute in previous posts – here and here. In short, this could be an important test case on the application of the Australian Consumer Law statutory guarantees to supplies of goods and services to Australian consumers by offshore e-tailers.

The pleadings in the case are now closed and affidavit evidence has been filed. Valve Corporation has been ordered to give discovery of certain documents by mid April. So the case should be ready to run in July if it cannot be settled beforehand.