FTC sues Amazon over kids' app charges

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon over charges that the company has not done enough to prevent children from making unauthorized in-app purchases, according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court.

The move had been expected since last week, when Amazon said it wouldn't settle with the FTC over the charges. Amazon said in a letter to the FTC last week that it had already refunded money to parents who complained and was prepared to go to court.

On Thursday Amazon said its statements in the letter still apply and did not comment further.

The dispute is over in-app charges in children's games on Kindle devices, where it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate whether users are spending virtual or real currency to acquire virtual items. When it introduced in-app charges in 2011, a password was not required to make a purchase. That changed in 2012, when Amazon required a password for charges over $20. In 2013, the company updated password protection again, but in a way that allowed windows of time where children could still make purchases, according to the FTC complaint.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140710/us-amazon-ftc-4378b2f218.html

[cbdo2007]

1. My kids hit the "purchase" button all the time on their "free" game apps...

and it really is very misleading because my daughter is 4 and has no idea what she's doing.

[onehandle]

2. They extracted $32.5 million from Apple for this. Amazon has 3x the lobbyists that Apple has.

Who bets they get a slap on the wrist?

Google has 100x the lobbyists that Apple and Amazon have combined. When the FTC goes after Android, they'll probably give them money.