Opinion | Apple accused of tax evasion and spreading pornography by mainland legal group

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Published: 5:09pm, 10 May 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

Apple is evading taxes in China and spreading pornography, said a Chinese consumer protection group in Beijing on Friday.

The China Association of Consumer Protection Law, in a report published by the Legal Daily newspaper, accused Apple’s online stores in China of not paying import taxes for software that they sell to mainland consumers. The accusations come amid a global debate on how online retailers should be taxed.

"Apple uses the internet to by-pass Chinese customs and reach Apple iPhone users directly," said He Shan, the head of the association, in the report. "Apple must pay customs duties to our nation."

The association is a subsidiary of the government-sanctioned China Law Society, and the newspaper is under the direction of the Communist Party’s central Politics and Law Committee.

The report also quotes Peking University criminal law scholar Kang Shuhua as saying Apple was criminally liable for spreading pornographic material in China. "This salacious, malignant tumour is eroding our nation’s way of doing things,” he said. “Apple must delete this obscene content."

Apple was also named in the April 17 edition of the People’s Daily as one of 198 companies under investigation for spreading pornographic material.