In 2011, Google decided to pull all of its paid apps from the Taiwan Google Play store as a response to the Taiwanese government’s decision to place a fine of NT$1 million or about $33,800 USD following claims of Google’s failure to comply with the country’s consumer protection law. This rendered Taiwan-based Android device users unable to purchase any apps at all from the one official source of Android apps in the world.
Fast forward 20 months, and paid apps are available in the Taiwan Google Play store once again. Google has started offering paid apps again to users who, according to a recently published report on Central News Agency (CNA) of Taiwan, can now view the “Top Paid” apps page just like users in other countries.
Google won a victory in Taiwan through a court ruling made by the Taipei High Administrative Court late last year, which deemed the local government’s actions as totally inappropriate. The Taiwanese government has since decided not to appeal against the said ruling, essentially enabling Google to pretty much just do its thing and keep all Android users who want to purchase paid apps happy.
