Apple Faces Class-Action Suit For In-App Purchases

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "Garen Meguerian and a team of lawyers are taking Apple to task for 'inducing' children to spend hundreds of dollars of their parents' money on in-app game purchases. Meguerian filed a class-action lawsuit this week in California, acknowledging that Apple has already addressed the problem, but saying that the company continues to unfairly profit from sales of virtual 'smurfberries' and 'fish bucks.' The issue at hand is related to games that rely on a 'freemium' business model, giving away the game for free on the App Store and relying on in-app purchases of virtual currency, extra levels, or other add-ons as a revenue stream."

Comments

Re:Bad parenting

[PopeRatzo]

So, neglectful parents are suing Apple because they can't be fucked with to watch what their children are doing?

No, conscientious parents are suing Apple for preying on children. And they found out about Apple preying on their children by watching what their children were doing.

Re:Bad parenting

[PopeRatzo]

I mean, anyone who doesn't know that iOS is a "closed" platform at this point only has themselves to blame.

A "closed-platform" that the company actively markets to children and turns out to be hostile to their best interests cannot blame anyone but itself when a lawsuit comes crashing down on their head.

With their "walled garden" Apple is saying "these applications are safe. We give our stamp of approval. In fact, you can get no other apps than the ones we approve". If those apps prey on children, it's no longer the developers who are to blame, but Apple.

There are games in the App Store that started out with no "in-app" purchases. Not all of these were free apps. Subsequently, and without notice, they suddenly offer "in-app" purchases. So a parent that vetted the application when it was initially purchased has done the due diligence and we enter the realm of pure fraud, especially if the app was marketed to children.

We've got a couple of iOS devices in our house. One is my daughter's and one is mine. She's practically a grown-up (older than 19) so she's smart enough that I don't worry. Plus, I raised her to be suspicious of every single thing a corporation does, to not believe any advertising and to always assume the worst about corporations. If she was 10, there's no way I'd give her an iOS device.

Anyone who has kids knows how corporations prey on children, and how many of those corporations are serial child abusers.