Apple Korea blamed for loophole in mobile app refund policy
Appstore users are reportedly abusing it by downloading the app multiple times or using content without paying for it
By Yoon Sung-won
Apple is drawing criticism for providing ammunition to abusers who benefit from loopholes in their closed mobile application store refund policies.
According to industry sources, Apple holds full control in paying refunds on paid for mobile content such as games. It determines whether to give refunds to consumers.
But the content developer cannot take part in the process under Apple’s refund policy. Apple does not even provide information about the users who have requested and received the refund, claiming it is to protect consumer rights. For this reason, the developers have no other choice but to manually track down the users and check if they continue to use the charged content they have already received refunds for.
On the backdrop of this, some users have abused the loophole in Apple’s refund policy to purchase charged content multiple times, request refunds and continue to consume the content without actually paying for it. In particular, some of the abusers have organised profitable businesses to operate the refund process on others’ behalf.
Mobile game companies here have been the first to be damaged and this has also caused secondary problems for those who have paid fair prices for the same content.
Apple has not released a statement about the issue. In the process, mobile game companies here are taking their own measures to counteract Apple.