Apple's new return policy in Europe allows buyers to return any content they purchase from iTunes for a full refund, no questions asked, for 14 days after purchase, the Guardian reports.
The change was meant to bring the company in line with current European regulations that mandate online sellers to offer a "right of withdrawal" from distance sales. The iTunes terms and conditions have now been updated to include a "right of cancellation," which tells users that "if you choose to cancel your order, you may do so within 14 days from when you received your receipt without giving any reason, except iTunes Gifts which cannot be refunded once you have redeemed the code."
In the past, users were able to request a refund for content that failed to download, but those were granted on a case-by-case basis. For any content that had properly downloaded, Apple reserved the right to reject applications for refunds. This is still the case outside of the European Union.
However, as the Guardian points out, the company went further than EU regulations demand and are allowing users to return songs they've already listened, books they've already read, movies they've already watch and apps they've already used no matter what the reason - essentially giving them the ability to rent digital content for free.
This a problem for app developers who count on people's immediate needs as a reason to purchase their product. Users can now buy an app for something they need at the time, use it, and return it with no cost to them. That means people are getting use out of these developers' apps, but the developers won't be make money from it.
Problems with this new policy also extend into the music industry. According to the Guardian, apps purchased from Apple are protected by "digital rights management" or DRM, which lets Apple revoke downloads that they've refunded. Music doesn't fall under that protection, however.
This means that users can download a song, save it somewhere, and then return it. Even if users don't use this new policy as a pirating system, it can still cause problems for artists, who rely on album sale numbers to land on the charts.
Organized fan groups could theoretically band together to purchase multiple copies of an album from their favorite band, and then return the album once the chart numbers are in for the week. That album could go to No. 1 artificially. This means artists with extremely active fan bases could beat out artists who have a solid but honest fan base to lose out on having that No.1 album. We're looking at you, Directioners and Beliebers.
If the industry standard for success is album sales, and fans are able to rig the system, then chart compilers in the EU are going to have to rethink their system if they want honest sales numbers.
What do you think of this new policy? Sound off in the comments section below.
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