Google No Longer Selling Apps In Taiwan [If You're In Taiwan, The Marketplace Is Closed Following Google's Dust-up With Taiwanese Regulations]

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Interesting bit of news about Taiwan: over there, if you’re a business, you’re apparently required by law to offer a seven-day return policy on pretty much anything you sell, such that if the person who bought it has a case of buyer’s remorse, they can act on it. And that’s pretty much anything, including mobile software. But since Google doesn’t much like the thought of a money-back guarantee over several days on all its apps, it’s done the next most rational thing and closed off its Taiwanese market for apps.

That’s right, folks; in Taiwan, apparently, you can no longer buy an app from Google. Rather than set up a new operation by which Taiwanese citizens could get their money back for a lousy app, Google has just plain old shut down in Taiwan.

Google had recently been fined a whopping $36,596 US (roughly, in Taiwanese currency, fully $1 million) for failing to comply with the seven-day return statutes. The interesting part here is that Google already offers a return policy on apps, but the window is a mere 15 minutes rather than the seven days prescribed by Taiwanese law. And for its part, Taiwanese officials were very upset by this measure, calling it “exploitative” of the poor Taiwanese citizens who just wanted to play some Angry Birds, man. Some reports say that Google will be subject to another fine if it fails to comply with Taiwanese law by this Friday, though it seems (and when I say I’m not a lawyer, I usually mean I’m not a lawyer in the United States, but I’m definitely not one in Taiwan) that they’ve already complied by no longer offering apps for purchase.

It’s an interesting legal battle shaping up, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. So what do you guys think? Does the Taiwanese government have a point, and we should be seeing longer windows on returning stuff? Or does Google have the right to set its own policies and let the market decide? It’s your call to make, folks, so make it down in the comments section below!

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