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APPLE HAS AGREED to refund at least $32.5 million to US customers for children’s purchases from its online App Store without parental consent.
The US Federal Trade Commission has also said that Apple agreed to modify its practice which until now had users children to make purchases on an iPhone or iPad 15 minutes after a password was entered.
FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez said Apple failed to inform parents of the 15-minute window that could allow children to make purchases ranging from one dollar to $100 for each app.
Ramirez told reporters that because of the loophole, “children ran up millions of dollars in charges without their parents’ knowledge and consent,” a violation of federal rules.
Consumers “will be obtaining full redress” for any unauthorised charges, she added.
Ramirez said the FTC believes there are “many thousands of consumers which were impacted” and could get refunds.
She said the consent decree signed with Apple sets a minimum of $32.5 million, with no maximum.
But if the refunded amount is less than $32.5 million, the balance will be paid to the regulatory agency.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook, in a letter to employees obtained and posted by the website 9to5mac.com, said the company has already been following the practices requested by the US regulators.
“The consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren’t already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight,” Cook was quoted as saying.
Cook’s memo said Apple had “heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements.”
He said the company sent emails to 28 million App Store customers offering refunds and that “when some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards.”
“In all, we received 37,000 claims and we will be reimbursing each one as promised,” Cook said in the memo.
Ramirez told reporters however that the FTC settlement “provides more robust relief” than Apple’s voluntary actions.
She said under the agreement, Apple must notify parents of the 15-minute window that allows further app purchases after a password is entered.
Ramirez would not comment on any other investigations but said the agency “is obviously concerned” about other companies in the mobile space where children may be able to make purchases without parental consent.
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Parents responsibility to monitor the children not apples full stop
Actually it’s sharp practice and not that simple. I shall attempt to explain why.
If you buy the kids a free game app and are unaware of “in app purchases” as a concept then they can run up a bill while just playing the game within 15 mins of downloading app (15 mins of not prompting for password is the default setting but it can be changed to every time a password if you know how) (also you can inhibit in app purchases if you know how).
Some games have the in app purchase on the game screen beside the game functions, others encourage purchase of energy crystals, diamonds etc. so if your a normal joe it looks like your kid is just playing a game and you will not find out until your iTunes invoice arrives or cred card bill.
Alternatively they could read a book or kick a football. You give a kid your €400 iPhone and tell them to “go play”, well, tough luck.
I enjoy reading the Journal, the short snappy articles are easy to read and cover all sorts of interesting topics, however, please read the articles before posting them! The amount of typos and mistakes in the articles is mind boggling! For such short pieces, surely a quick proof read would be quick to do. I’m aware that if there are any mistakes with this comment it will be ironic, especially if I failed to use the word ironic properly, which I cannot guarantee, but I’m not a journalist. Kind regards.
Neither are they
Em….shrewd tech savvy 5 year olds should not be under estimated
Parents are 100% to blame. Apple should not have to pay back a cent!
Allow me to introduce my friend settings, he’ll let you enable restrictions so your kids can’t buy apps on the hundreds of euro worth of technology you’re letting them use as a toy.
$35 million is very small change for apple
Gibbs…
More to the point.
This is the responsibility of parents and not Apple.
Nothing to do with this story but is anyone else experiencing problems with the journal app. Taking forever to load, frequently freezing and crashing, even typing this comment took an age as each key was delayed before the chosen letter appeared on screen. Perhaps it’s my phone but other sites don’t produce the same problems. Anyone had the same situation?
That’s a very expensive apple
Yeah …… And loads of our comments keep going missing too
David Mc ummm.. ! What phone / operating system are you on ? I have iOS 7 and it’s given me loads of problems , not just in the journal app but most other apps too
It’s Mc Shite Mia………
David Mc Shite.
Phone is Sony Experia E. It’s the cheapest smartphone Sony do and petformes pretty solidly for my needs.
I enjoy the journal but it’s becoming almost unusable lately.
Thanks for your response Mia.
Having the same problems sometimes David
I had no idea what an app was as a child, an apple was something I was made to eat sometimes & had no clue what an angry bird was although my friend once hit a crow off a telephone wire with a catapult……..the crow died & my mam turned into an angry bird lol :D
You think murdering an innocent creature for fun is hilarious!?
Apple refunded me over a year ago when my child accidentally upgraded and app she was only 3 at the time. Was totally blaming myself until my friend told me to ring,she had been refunded, they also told me how to change my settings so it wouldn’t happen again.
Why on earth would you allow a 3 yr old to play with your iPhone?
They don’t have enough toys????!!
Apple,
Rotten to the core….
Because???
My son bought all the apps on my phone >.>
All of them were free though!
Heh, was just kidding. He’s not allowed touch my phone with his track record for breaking stuff!
Not to mention your phone porn stash.
Hard to know who to blame, the parents should absolutely be more responsible but it’s disgraceful that some apps have in-app purchases worth up to €90 in some that I’ve seen. They specifically target children whose parents have no idea that it could be so simple to authorise hundreds of euro worth of purchases with a few taps. It’s hard to blame Apple but they could always do with the good publicity, marketing is their only strength after all.
Apple giving back to their sheep!
If they put an apple logo on an abacus their sheep wud run out to buy the next generation calculator
No but judging by your handle, if sony put their logo on an inflatable dartboard you would buy it! :D
It might not be much to the most valuable company in the world but they’d no need to do this. Fair play to Apple!
My 7 year old cousin ran up a bill of over €50 on her Dads phone. He nearly died when he saw his phone bill!
Why do “responsible” adults give their phones / iPads to their little darlings in the first place without ensuring some form of control in the first place. You do no need to use a credit card to purchase apps from the App store. iTunes vouchers are safer and limit your exposure when your kids are treating it like being let loose in a sweet shop. I think it would have been a more valuable lesson to the next generation if they had to pay for their actions. We are now at the stage when wrongdoing is always someone else’s fault.
have your say