Google Agrees to Refund Millions in Unauthorized IAPs

Google has agreed to make restitution of around $19 Million dollars in IAPs which were challenged by the FTC as unfair and unauthorized billing by Google. Many of these charges were made famous by children using their parent’s accounts for exorbitant In-App game purchases.

Google isn't the first, nor is it the last, app vendor that has been hit by a lawsuit from FTC. Apple has similarly been targeted and, as of last July, Amazon as well.

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People need to be responsible for their own children, and they have passwords in place.

That said, IMO we should simply require a "buyers remorse" law to protect consumers, that allows them to return software within a reasonably short time period for WHATEVER reason, even just the reason being that it sucks ass. Someone using software for a day or two that "returns" it is not going to hurt the software development industry, and if anything would just minimize the BS marketing where products promise the world and deliver a big heaping bowl of ass, and in the case of kids a whole bunch of order confirmations by email to the account owner serves as warning and then they can simply "return" the software no hassle and no harm done.

This is tricky, because a secure system would be more cumbersome but well worth it IMO. Make In-App purchases requires secondary authorization and the problem is lessened or minimized - or allow parents to set profiles on the fly that disable IAP. LIke putting the phone in kid mode before handing it to them.

Of course, in the end you can't account for someone who bypasses all security and then turns the physical device over - that's just laziness.

Bad parenting
"murica!

Ducman69 said:

People need to be responsible for their own children, and they have passwords in place.

That said, IMO we should simply require a "buyers remorse" law to protect consumers, that allows them to return software within a reasonably short time period for WHATEVER reason, even just the reason being that it sucks ass. Someone using software for a day or two that "returns" it is not going to hurt the software development industry, and if anything would just minimize the BS marketing where products promise the world and deliver a big heaping bowl of ass, and in the case of kids a whole bunch of order confirmations by email to the account owner serves as warning and then they can simply "return" the software no hassle and no harm done.

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I don't think you get it Ducman69.

Example, when I bought the Droid 1 on Verizon years ago, to buy anything on goggle play I had to put in a CC, or something. Fast Forward to 2014, switch to t-Mobil, I get 3 Smart phone for my family, cheaper than 1 smart/1 dumb on Verizon.

Anyway my 12 year old son had been using my Droid 1 on WiFi only for a year no issues, well in less than a week, $90 on goggle play. So in 2014, when you get phones, they auto bill goggle play back to the phone account, they don't tell you they do this, it's an automatic feature. I didn't learn that till after it happened, and sure as hell my son didn't know he was being charged. Whats worse is I contacted Goggle and they said they would refund my money for his purchases....guess what I have seen $0 back from them, and that was 5 months ago.

Sure he is blocked now, but no where in my contract does it say a 12 year old or anyone will be able to buy anything without a password or CC! So in game purchases are almost automatic, just click ok when it pops up, blame right to your phone bill.

Oh and I do watch my kid, he has Childtracker on his phone and dinner time. I see everything he is doing. It doesn't list that the apps he downloaded were bought, or that Google Music he signed up for a year. That's why I caught it in a week.

I'm confused, because every purchase I make on iOS or Android devices requires me to enter my google play password. Family members shouldn't have this password, and I didn't even know you could disable it. *scratching head*

flashoverride said:

This is tricky, because a secure system would be more cumbersome but well worth it IMO. Make In-App purchases requires secondary authorization and the problem is lessened or minimized - or allow parents to set profiles on the fly that disable IAP. LIke putting the phone in kid mode before handing it to them.

Of course, in the end you can't account for someone who bypasses all security and then turns the physical device over - that's just laziness.

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This is one of the issues however in that these purchases are "impulse buys" typically as such from the business perspective it is beneficial to make purchases as convenient as possible. So obviously there is a conflict of interest here as from the business side you want mechanisms in place to allow for "one click" buying.

Ducman69 said:

I'm confused, because every purchase I make on iOS or Android devices requires me to enter my google play password. Family members shouldn't have this password, and I didn't even know you could disable it. *scratching head*

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There are 3 options (as of the newest Google Play)

1) Always require password
2) Require password every 30 minutes
3) Never require password

The default option is every 30 minutes as far as I know.