iTunes now offers two week refunds in the EU

Anyone buying from an EU country can now get refunds on anything bought from iTunes, the App Store, or iBooks, up to two weeks after they made the purchase — no questions asked.

9to5Mac noted the updated terms and conditions regarding refunds, which read:

Right of cancellation: 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.

The Next Web points out that this is likely due to an EU consumer rights directive from June, which states that consumers should get a 14-day return, or right-to-cancellation, period for goods and services purchased within the European Economic Area.

Google complies with this directive in part, offering a two week return period for music subscriptions, films, and TV. Sadly books and music only have a seven day return period, and apps are only returnable two hours after purchase. That might change now that Apple have stepped up and have started offering the full two weeks.

This is great news for people who don’t want to be ripped off when buying digitally, but it does mean there is more room for exploiting the returns policy. Two weeks is more than enough time to finish up with a game, or read a book in its entirety, and that’s not good for the developers.