Legal Problems on the Payment in RMB in Apple App Store

Highlight: Apple’s acceptation of payment in RMB in its App Store may be deemed as the intention to operate in China, which by local laws shall be administrative licensed of the value-added telecommunication service first and the entity shall be at least 50% owned by local companies. Furthermore, the applications sold in App Store are also demanded for administrative license and registration of Chinese government.

On the afternoon of 17th November, I was interviewed by Mr. Zeng Hang, the journalist from the 21st Century Business Herald, an influential Chinese financial newspaper, on the Apple’s plan to accept the payment in local currency for the purchase of applications of iPhone and iPad. Mr. You replied that it’s infeasible basing on the existing regulations, for any app purchases by Chinese clients is kind of shopping in U.S.A and shall be settled in dollar. And carrying out of the payment in RMB means App Store begins its operation in China which involves many administrative licenses.

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