European Union officials are meeting with representatives from Apple, Google and consumer protection agencies Thursday and Friday to discuss how developers represent in-app purchases to European consumers.
The goal of the meetings is to set new rules aimed at making app developers more transparent, and to put in place new regulations to prevent children from making accidental purchases.
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According to the EU, Europe's app industry will be worth $86.46 billion in the next five years. Tighter regulations on how in-app purchases are made will ensure consumers are aware of exactly what they are buying, says the EU's justice commission.
"Misleading consumers is clearly the wrong business model and also goes against the spirit of EU rules on consumer protection," said Viviane Reding, the EU's justice commissioner in a press release announcing the meetings. "The European Commission will expect very concrete answers from the app industry to the concerns raised by citizens and national consumer organisations."
The four main issues to address, according to the EU, are:
Games advertised as “free” should not mislead consumers about the true costs involved;
Games should not contain direct exhortations to children to buy items in a game or to persuade an adult to buy items for them;
Consumers should be adequately informed about the payment arrangements and purchases should not be debited through default settings without consumers’ explicit consent;
Traders should provide an email address so that consumers can contact them in case of queries or complaints.
Authorities in the US have also tangled with Apple over regulations surrounding in-app payments. The company settled a complaint with the FTC earlier this year that resulted in the company paying back consumers $32.5 million for accidental in-app purchases made by children.
That settlement resulted in Apple changing its billing policies to prevent unintended transactions.
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