FTC Sues Amazon Over Informed Consent For In-App Purchases

According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, to purchase an app, one must be able to offer informed consent.

The FTC has sued Amazon.com an allegations that the online retailer has allowed for millions of dollars of unauthorized purchases by children through its app store.  Apple computers settled similar charges from the FTC this year, but Amazon has publicly declared that it will fight the FTC in court rather than settle.

The FTC’s settlement would have required Amazon repay consumers and make structural changes to their apps store that would make purchases by children more difficult.  Specifically they want a passwords requirement for all purchases, even those made in-app. The FTC claims that Amazon did not require informed consent for in-app purchases until June of this year.

Amazon Associate General Counsel Andrew DeVore responded in a letter to the FTC that Amazon’s practices “were lawful from the outset and…already meet or exceed the requirements of the Apple consent order,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

Mobile developers rake in fairly significant profits from in-app purchasing.  Such purchases can be virtual goods such as weapons for game characters, extra levels or special features like costume changes or songs.  They typically range in price from $1 to $5, 30 percent of which Amazon keeps.

“What’s Hot” is aggregated content. PYMNTS.com claims no responsibility for the accuracy of the content published by the original source.