The Taipei City Government has ordered local branches of Apple Inc and Google Inc to introduce a seven-day free trial program at their mobile phone software stores within 15 days, a senior official said yesterday.
“If the two companies fail to meet the requirement by the deadline, they may be slapped with fines of up to NT$1.5 million [US$52,300],” said Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元), head of the city government’s Law and Regulation Commission.
Consumers can buy and download applications on their mobile phones through Apple Store or Google’s Android Market, but neither offers a seven-day free trial program that allows customers to return the applications or receive refunds.
Yeh said the absence of a return and refund mechanism violates the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), which requires corporations to offer a free trial period of at least seven days.
In the past, online shopping operators said that they were not covered by the provision, but Yeh said the city government reached an agreement with online auction Web site operators last year to have them adhere to the free-trial provision.
Yeh said because purchasing mobile app software via smartphones or cellphones was a recent trend, the city government did not include this market in last year’s deal.
The commission has given Apple and Google a 15-day grace period to revise their mobile phone software sales and service provisions to include a seven-day free trial mechanism.
If they refuse to abide by the directive, the two companies could face fines ranging between NT$60,000 and NT$1.5 million, Yeh said.
In an example of the problem the city government is trying to prevent, Yeh cited a case of software bought on Apple Store on Thursday that did not work, but left the buyer without recourse.
According to Apple Store and Android Market rules, the two companies are not liable for apps or smartphone/cellphone software developed by a third party, even if they are sold through their online platforms.
“Such a claim is an irresponsible business practice,” Yeh said.
Yeh said that if flawed software apps were thought to threaten the financial interests of potential buyers, online suppliers of those programs would be ordered to stop sales and allow customers to return them or get refunds, in accordance with Article 36 of the Consumers Protection Act.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS