Kids Google In-App Charges
Following claims that some parents have been charged for their kid accessing apps they were not supposed to access in the first place on Google, the company may now be facing a huge bill of $ 19 million. In addition, Google is expected to change its billing procedures to ensure that such apps get parental consent before any charges are assigned to subscribers.
Google will be required to contact all consumers who paid for unauthorized in-app charges within a span of 15 days and make refunds promptly if so requested by the account holders. It goes even further to state that should the company not make refunds amounting to $19 million, the balance must be remitted to the FTC or be sent to the US treasury.
This is the third case related to unlawful access by children to their parent’s in – apps platforms that have resulted in unlawful charges being assigned to parents. Apple is another company that has been affected by this as well. The company had to pay out a little over $ 32 million for similar offenses.
Google Classifies Bills As Family Fraud Or Friendly Fraud
Google has been fighting these accusations since 2011, the year that the company introduced in – app charges. The FTC is working hard to fight such issues because they feel that consumers should not be charged for purchases they have not authorized even if the purchases were made by their children. The unlawful charges made by Google range from as little as 99 cents to $200 dollars.
Google’s problem have stemmed from the fact that they billed their clients without obtaining authorization leaving many consumers with bills that they had no recollection of being responsible for. Google has been accused of further negligence considering that many of the systems on which these charges were made did not even require a password to be accessed. While many users have been outraged, Google has poured salt in the wound by labeling these incidents as family fraud or friendly fraud in an attempt to avoid blame for the charges.
