South Korea orders Apple, Google make refund policies for app purchases consumer-friendly

The Fair Trade Commission, South Korea's antitrust watchdog, has ordered changes in Apple and Google policies such as their no-refund policy, which is deemed an unfair consumer practice.

The commission wants Apple and Google to have their mobile app stores allow refunds for app purchases and have more consumer-friendly policies. The move is aimed to protect consumers and avoid a rippling effect on other cases that happen worldwide.

"We expect the measure, aimed at protecting consumers, will have a ripple effect on similar cases throughout the world," South Korea's FTC stated.

As a result of the orders from the regulators, Google will design a customer refund system in its Google Play web store which will follow the guidelines indicated in the Web developers' refund system. On the other hand, the iTunes app store of Apple will notify app users when there are changes being made in the contract's terms.

In 2011, Apple and Google received pressure from the Taiwanese government to revise their app store policies. In the case of Apple, it was summoned to enable a refund period that would last for at least seven days. During that time, there was no clear measure of changes made by Apple, which must have dealt with the issue by granting refunds only upon receiving requests.

In the new policy, Apple consumers do not get automatic refunds for apps. What they can do is go through iTunes Support and send a problem report. Refunds are handled on a case-by-case basis. Apple has rolled out its update prevention and reinstallation of refunded apps in May that was eventually extended to the Mac App store.

Google's response to the FTC will be limited to the domestic market and will allow developers to set their own terms of refund. Consumers will no longer have to worry about being charged automatically after the app's trial period has ended.

Apart from Apple and Google, the FTC has also ordered Korean-based companies such as SK Planet, KT, LG Electronics and LG Uplus to make changes in their business terms in response to continued requests from the nongovernmental organization dubbed Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice.

For now, the app refund policies are limited to South Korean consumers. South Korea is paving the way for other countries when it comes to dealing with business practices that are deemed unfair since it has laws that deal exclusively with regulating unfair clauses.

It would be good news if the changes in refund policies were effective on a global scale, as consumers wouldn't be burned after downloading an unwanted or sub-par mobile app. Parents also wouldn't have to worry about their children getting excited and purchasing in-game items as they would have an easier way to get their money back.