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South Korea: Google, Apple ordered to revise app store terms

By  |  July 6, 2014

South Korean antitrust officials announced Sunday that they have ordered conglomerates Google and Apple to alter certain terms of their mobile application stores that authorities have found to be anticompetitive.

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    According to reports, the Korea Fair Trade Commission is forcing changes on the Google Play and Apple iTunes app stores; among those changes includes a requirement of allowing customer refunds and notifying customers if their contractual terms have changed.

    The head of the KFTC’s Adhesion Contract Division, Hwang Won-chul, described the regulation as one that “will become benchmark cases for other countries, which face growing customer complaints over unfair provisions in contracts of mobile web store operators.”

    According to reports, this marks the first time South Korea has regulated international app store operators.

    The move followed complaints y the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, which requested that authorities crack down on unfair foreign mobile app terms last March.

    Full content: Korea Herald

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