Taipei, Dec. 27 (CNA) Google won a battle in its legal fight against the Taipei City Government on Thursday after the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled that the government has no authority to ask the Internet giant to revise the terms of sales of its mobile apps.

In the ruling, the court said Google's practice of offering consumers the right to cancel their purchases of apps within 15 minutes of purchase rather than seven days after the transaction has been made, as is stipulated in local law, and of not providing a refund mechanism, is not something that the city government could regulate under Taiwan's Consumer Protection Law.

For that reason, the court said the city government is in no position to order Google to revise its practice, much less impose a NT$1 million (US$34,397) fine on it in June 2011.

However, the Legal Affairs Department under the city government vowed to appeal against the ruling and take their case to the Supreme Administrative Court.

By denying the local government's power to protect consumers, the ruling is forcing individual consumers to sue Google separately, which is time-consuming and costly, an official of the department said.

The official pointed out that the European Union enacted a law last year providing digital products buyers a 14-day cancellation period with only a few exceptions.

He said his department will continue to negotiate with Google to give buyers a longer grace period. Google has stopped the sales of its apps while awaiting the court's ruling in the case.

(By Huang Li-yun, Huang Yi-han and Maubo Chang)
ENDITEM/cs