Apple Tweaks Taiwanese App Store Terms to Formalize 7-Day Return Policy

[MacRumors]

Late last month, we noted that Apple had reportedly begun offering a seven-day window for "returns" on App Store purchases in Taiwan, a move made in response to a notice from government officials requiring Apple to comply with consumer protection laws requiring such return policies.

As reported by IDG News, Apple has now formalized that policy, updating its terms and conditions for the Taiwanese Mac App Store, App Store, and iBookstore earlier this week to include language outlining the policy.

You may cancel your purchase within seven (7) days from the date of delivery and iTunes will reimburse you for the amount paid, provided you inform iTunes that you have deleted all copies of the product. Upon cancellation you will no longer be licensed to use the product. This right cannot be waived.

The change appears to be unique to the Taiwanese market, with Apple's terms and conditions documents for its stores in other countries making no mention of a similar policy. Apple does, however, routinely judge refund requests on a case-by-case basis and will frequently issue refunds for purchases made in error or in other select situations. Apple has even been said to be offering refunds on its own Final Cut Pro X apps to those customers dissatisfied with their purchases.

Google, which currently offers a standard 15-minute refund policy on Android app purchases, has resisted complying with the regulations, disagreeing with the government's interpretation of the consumer protection act. The city of Taipei has already fined Google nearly $35,000 over its failure to comply, and the company has appealed that fine as the two sides continue to discuss the situation.

Article Link: Apple Tweaks Taiwanese App Store Terms to Formalize 7-Day Return Policy

 

[ECUpirate44]

I've been wanting this to come to the US for years, but I have a feeling it never will.

 

[kolax]

I'd be happy with just 24 hours.. that's long enough to decide whether an App is worth the money or it is crap.

And reviews don't always give the true picture: I've paid for a 5 star app and thought it was crap, and paid for a poorly rated app and found it incredibly useful.

 

[lilcosco08]

I've been wanting this to come to the US for years, but I have a feeling it never will.

Same, but with like 1-2 hours for a trial. 7 days seems a little excessive.

 

[iCrizzo]

This should be a standard for all customers, not just 1 country.

 

[iSayuSay]

Yeah 7 days feels too generous. Anyone can buy a game, finish it on 3 or 4 days, and refund it.

Repeat the process again, and again and again. Productivity apps would never have this problem since it will always be used.

Games are different story, and 70% apps downloaded out there are games

 

[bbodine]

Yeah 7 days feels too generous. Anyone can buy a game, finish it on 3 or 4 days, and refund it.

Repeat the process again, and again and again. Productivity apps would never have this problem since it will always be used.

Games are different story, and 70% apps downloaded out there are games

I definitely agree, especially reading a book in 7 days. I am surprised it applies to the iBookstore as well. A few hours is plenty of time.

 

[Portaluk]

Thats a bit naughty of google not complying.

I don't agree with the laws of your country so i'm not going to adhere to them.

 

[Popeye206]

Yeah 7 days feels too generous. Anyone can buy a game, finish it on 3 or 4 days, and refund it.

Repeat the process again, and again and again. Productivity apps would never have this problem since it will always be used.

Games are different story, and 70% apps downloaded out there are games

I agree... 7 days is way too much. I think 1 hour is more than generous so you can see if the App is worth keeping. Apple needs protect developers from people just downloading, playing and going for refunds. I would imagine there would be lots of abuse and Apple would be burdened with issuing refunds all the time.

Maybe they should have a limited refund policy for any App over a certain price like $10? That's when it hurts when you pay good money for an app and it's crap. Personally, I'm not too worried about Apps I pay $0.99 for. It's a low risk purchase.

 

[tommy060289]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

This should be brought to all countries! How come the taiwanese government can stand up for it's people but ours can't!

Agree 7 days is a lite excessive but a refund period of even a couple of hours would be appreciated!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Apple is just following the laws of the land. They probably disagree with them, like Google, but unlike Google, they'd rather not face lawsuits by disobeying them.

Plus, if Apple just stays in line and lets Google do the fighting, they can benefit if Google manages to set a precedent in favor of app downloads not following the same rules as other consumer products, at no cost to Apple should things not work out.

Although, as a game developer, I am concerned that people from Taiwan might download my games, beat them, then ask for refunds.

 

[jbertschi]

Good policy if they can throttle abusers...

This seems like a good thing in general (I'd like to see something similar here in the US) if they can throttle those that abuse the return policy. I doubt if Taiwanese law allows them to deny returns even if a particular user racks up a ton of returns. Perhaps they could prevent that user from buying new apps though (e.g. you need to wait one day before buying new apps for each app that you get a refund on). Excessive abuse (say over 1000 app returns in a year, or perhaps getting a refund on over 90% of your apps) may result in permanently banning that user from buying paid apps.

Maybe not perfect (it could still be abused somewhat), but it may cut down on those that buy apps / books, finish them, then get refunds excessively.

 

[res1233]

Any refund at all has potential for abuse, but 7 days is ridiculous. You'd be a fool to complete a game, or finish reading a book, and not take advantage of this. Perhaps a limited number of returns per month? That might solve it...

 

[dr Dunkel]

Write longer lasting games - problem solved

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

24 hour trial period would be perfect anything more than that is piracy

 

[kenypowa]

Thats a bit naughty of google not complying.

I don't agree with the laws of your country so i'm not going to adhere to them.

The truth is that this law is beyond ridiculous. This is imposed by a municipal government, not the central government. The consumer protection law is meant for physical merchandise, not digital contents. The Taipei City government is beyond incompetent. The official who made a big deal out of it was caught chatting with a female online via his cell phone during a legislative session. He was merely creating the whole mess to divert attention.

I agree with Google on this one. 7 day "trial" period for paid app is totally abusive to software developers.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Will Apple fight back though? Seeing how Apple is now working with TSMC and being in Taiwan I doubt they want any political fire up their asses. I hope Apple stands up for the developers on this like google (gasp!) did.

 

[puma25uk]

The UK has the Consumer Distance Selling Act Regulations which apply to any goods or services purchased remotely, i.e. not in a (physical) store.

I often wondered how any purchase within the Apple App Store would stack up against the above regulations, which essentially give you a no-quibble right to cancel or return any product you, the consumer, may have purchased by accident, or don't want anymore.

Just came across this link, appearing to offer how to solicit refunds under the above regulations: http://www.almostzara.com/2011/03/are-you-appy-with-that-app-clarifying-the-return-and-refund-policy-for-android-rim-iphone-and-windows7/#more-3532

I suspect the reason app stores don't want to offer refunds, is that they have no way of ensuring/forcing an app to be removed remotely. That and of course maximising profits

 

[iStudentUK]

The UK has the Consumer Distance Selling Act Regulations which apply to any goods or services purchased remotely, i.e. not in a (physical) store.

I often wondered how any purchase within the Apple App Store would stack up against the above regulations, which essentially give you a no-quibble right to cancel or return any product you, the consumer, may have purchased by accident, or don't want anymore.

The regulations (here) expressly exclude software unless sold in a sealed package. See Regulation 13(1)(d).

 

[gnasher729]

Any refund at all has potential for abuse, but 7 days is ridiculous. You'd be a fool to complete a game, or finish reading a book, and not take advantage of this. Perhaps a limited number of returns per month? That might solve it...

Strange how your definition of "fool" meets my definition of an honest man.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Just one question. Are there any good Taiwanese apps?

 

[satkin2]

Some form of refund mechanism would be welcome, but how is the difficult question.

An hour or two is a reasonable amount of time to judge an app, but how can they be sure you've removed it? Remotely remove it?

This will either be revoked as Taiwan sees sense realising 7 days is excessive, or people in other countries with consumer rights will try test cases and get similar rulings in their nations, which would throw the whole system into chaos.

 

[eyhk]

Human Nature is to Abuse

For most decent people, a return period even of software would sound reasonable. Unfortunately, there are always people who put it upon themselves to take advantage of any decent gesture and abuse it for their personal gain. Software is too easy to pirate and even the shortest amount of time will allow pirates to purchase all the software they want, crack it, and then return them. Before, somebody had to purchase at least one copy of the software in order to pirate it. Now it seems the entire pirating community will turn to Taiwan to get their fixings of free software. I'm surprised that Apple didn't fight this, but hopefully they have some checks and balances in place to keep track of excessive returns. It would also make sense to allow Google to fight in the courts and use their case as precedence like ArtofWarefare mentioned above.

 

[Syk]

Put me in the I'd be happy with a 24hr period especially with the higher priced apps. Heck I'll be happy with 8hrs

 

[gnasher729]

The truth is that this law is beyond ridiculous. This is imposed by a municipal government, not the central government. The consumer protection law is meant for physical merchandise, not digital contents. The Taipei City government is beyond incompetent. The official who made a big deal out of it was caught chatting with a female online via his cell phone during a legislative session. He was merely creating the whole mess to divert attention.

Hypothetically, Apple could do this for a month, and then they might publish some numbers: "Last month we sold X dollars worth of apps, this month we sold Y dollars worth of apps, of which Z dollars were refunded". Further action would depend on the results. For example, if they went from 1 million sales to 2 million sales and 200,000 refunds, that would be total and utter success. If they went from 1 million sales to 2 million sales and 1.9 million refunds, then I would expect the store to close down until the law is changed.

They'd probably run some statistics as well. If I download ten games, and within two hours I ask for a refund for nine and keep one, that is probably Ok. If I download one, ask for a refund after six days, download the next one, ask for a refund after six days and so on, that is probably some kind of dishonest behaviour.