If you’ve been waiting patiently for a refund from Amazon for in-app purchases your kids made without your permission, your time has come. [More]
in-app purchases
Amazon Stops Fight With Feds Over Kids’ In-App Purchases; Parents May Finally Get Refunds
By 4.4.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Almost a year after Amazon was found liable for unfairly billing parents for kids’ in-app purchases, consumers are one step closer to getting refunds for those unauthorized charges after the Federal Trade Commission and the e-commerce giant decided to stop fighting over the process. [More]
Man Steals $5M From Employer, Spends $1M Playing ‘Game Of War’ On His Phone
By 12.12.16
What would you do if you’d just stolen millions from your employer? First of all, don’t do that. You could light $1 million of it on fire immediately, or, you could spend it playing Game Of War on your phone. [More]
Amazon Must Issue Refunds, Not Gift Cards, To Parents Unfairly Billed For Kids’ In-App Purchases
By 11.11.16
Back in April, a federal court ruled that Amazon had not done enough to alert Kindle Fire owners — and users of Amazon’s Android appstore — that “Free” apps could still allow kids to make costly in-app transactions, but the ruling left unresolved exactly how much Amazon would need to pay to make customers whole again. Yesterday, the judge in the case determined that wronged Amazon customers must need to actively claim their refund, and that Amazon could not pay the refund in site credit or gift cards. [More]
If Your Kid Made Unapproved App Purchases Using Facebook, You Could Get A Refund
By 7.27.16
It’s so easy to buy apps and then buy even more stuff within those apps, even a kid can do it. Which is exactly why a court has ordered Facebook to refund parents whose children made unapproved app purchases while using the social media network. [More]
Amazon Found Liable For Unfairly Billing Parents For Kids’ In-App Purchases
By 4.27.16
There’s a time-tested rule that if someone gives a child an easy way to unwittingly spend your money, you will soon be looking at a thick bill containing a large number of tiny purchases. Today, a federal court ruled that Amazon failed to do enough to alert Kindle Fire owners — and users of Amazon’s Android appstore — that “Free” apps could still allow kids to make costly in-app transactions. [More]
Snapchat Now Lets Users Pay For The Ability To Replay Those Self-Destructing Messages
By 9.15.15
Snapchat, built on the premise that photos and videos sent between users would self-destruct in a matter of seconds, has allowed users the ability to replay one passage per day for nearly two years. Now, the social network is expanding that option, letting users replay as many messages as they want — so long as they’re willing to pay for it. [More]
Amazon Fighting FTC On In-App Purchases By Kids
By 10.7.14
While its competitors in mobile apps Apple and Google have reached settlements with the Federal Trade Commission, Amazon has decided that it will not roll over. No, the tech company is going to fight the FTC’s lawsuit against it rather than settle, and filed a brief last week making the case that this is all the darn parents’ fault. Sort of. [More]
Despite Policy Changes, Google Must Face Class Action Suit Regarding In-App Purchases
By 7.22.14
Google may have made changes to prevent inadvertent in-app purchases within the Google Play store, but the company still has to answer for their previously lax controls that allowed children to run up huge bills on their parents’ accounts. [More]
Amazon Sued By Feds Over In-App Purchases
By 7.10.14
Last week, Amazon made it clear to the Federal Trade Commission that it wasn’t going to fork over a ton of cash to close an investigation into the e-tailer’s in-app purchase policy. And today the FTC made it clear that it intends to pursue its complaint against Amazon, suing the company in federal court. [More]
Google Sued Over Kids’ In-App Currency Purchases
By 3.11.14
While the folks at Apple have already settled civil and regulatory complaints about in-app purchase policies that allowed children to run up huge bills on their parents’ accounts, the Google Play store has only recently come under scrutiny for its allegedly lax controls. Now, a mom in New York has filed a potential class action against the Internet giant, claiming its policies encourage kids to waste their parents’ money. [More]
Apple To Refund At Least $32.5 Million For In-App Purchases By Kids
By 1.15.14
Though Apple has already settled a class-action lawsuit over all those in-app purchases unwittingly made by free-fingered kids on their parents’ and other adults’ iPhones and iPads, that deal didn’t mean the folks at the Federal Trade Commission were going to stop looking into the situation. Today, the FTC announced that it has reached a deal with the electronics giant to issue at least another $32.5 million in refunds to consumers. [More]
Six-Year-Old Twins Playing iPad Game Rack Up $1,600 Worth Of Virtual Pets
By 10.2.13
While adults have the ability to pause and reflect on whether or not a virtual pet is a necessity, a six-year-old is probably going to see that digital dog and immediately want it, and need to have it. Or a pair of twins that age managed to spend $1,600 of their parents’ money through in-app purchases while playing a game on an iPad. [More]
Apple To Refund $6,000 Spent By 8-Year-Old On In-Game Purchases
By 7.22.13
Another day, another story of a youngster racking up a massive bill on some unlucky adults’ iPad. This time, it’s an 8-year-old in England who tallied up £4,000 (around $6,100) on in-game purchases over the last few months — half of it in just a six-day period. The girl’s dad thought he’d have to sell his car to pay the bill, but Apple says it has decided to refund the money. [More]
Did Your Kid Make In-App Purchases On Your iPhone Without Asking? You Might Be Due Some Cash From Apple
By 6.24.13
A couple years back, Apple came under fire from parents and regulators after reports that kids were making in-app purchases, sometimes to the tune of four figures, on their folks’ iPhones and iPads. The company has since changed its policy to prevent children from draining their parents’ wallets in this fashion, but that didn’t stop the class-action lawsuit from the people who’d lost money before the policy change. [More]
How To Avoid Handing Your Tot A Blank Check Made Out To Apple
By 3.19.13
Maybe you sneer at posts such at this one about a five-year-old who bought $2,500 worth of digital cars in mere minutes, or this one about a child who spent $1,400 on Smurfberries on her parents’ iPad. You’d never be so stupid as to hand a child a device with the password already entered and ready to go. Jamie might have said the same thing…until she did. [More]
Apple No Longer Requires In-App Subscriptions To Be Best Available Deals
By 6.10.11
Apple has tinkered with its in-app subscription purchases policies, making things more flexible for publishers and possibly more difficult for consumers. Previously, Apple required publishers to charge their lowest prices for subscriptions purchased within apps, but now Apple has dropped pricing restrictions. [More]
Turn Off In-App Purchasing On Your iPhone To Keep Your Kids From Smurfing You Into The Poor House
By 5.3.11
In the wake of that 8-year-old who racked up $1,400 in Smurfs Village purchases on her parents’ iPad, Apple recently instituted a policy that requires a user’s App Store password for making in-app purchases. But we’ve gotten some e-mails from parents who want to be able to share that password with their kids — for the purposes of downloading free content — while still preventing their children from amassing millions of useless Smurf berries. [More]
