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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS