Even though Amazon points out shortage of measures against unauthorized in-app charges also refuses improvement and makes a court struggle

ByArielle Nadel

US government agencies aiming to protect consumers ·The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)Has filed a lawsuit seeking to return the fee of the illegally charged application, saying "It leaves the state that the child can easily order paid option of the application without parental permission" to Amazon It became clear.

FTC Alleges Amazon Unlawfully Billed Parents for Millions of Dollars in Children's Unauthorized In-App Charges | Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/07/ftc-alleges-amazon-unlawfully-billed-parents-millions-dollars

FTC sues Amazon for letting children rack up in-app purchase bills | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/10/5887765/ftc-sues-amazon-for-letting-children-rack-up-in-app-purchase-bills

FTC is a complaint from the consumer that many complaints such as "It is a game application of Amazon tablet terminal Kindle Fire, the child used a chargeable billing option without permission from parents, and received a large claim" As a result, Kindle compatible applications are not required to enter a password to purchase paid billing options, so if you are a mobile terminal like Kindle Fire who usually logs in with your Amazon account, It is understood that it is in a state where pay service can be easily used without permission without permission.

According to FTC survey, since Amazon launched in-app billing service in 2011, no password is required for paid option of game application, Amazon will be $ 20 (about 2000 yen) in 2012, Although it changed to the specification requiring password input for the above charged toll, it still said that it was not necessary to enter the password for the charge less than $ 20.

ByPedro Vera

In addition, FTC is a complaint, Amazon billing methods for game applications,Amazon coinSuch as 'Acorn' or 'Star' as payment items are paid, so it is difficult to recognize that the child is a paid service. Since Amazon has collected a fee of 30% from in-app purchase fee from application creator, FTC has requested Amazon to improve operation on toll charging as a service provider managing application creator That's it.

Frequently happening that children are charged a large amount of money by using paid app services without parents, FTC seems to correct not only for Amazon but also for Apple and Google App store operation We have issued frequent improvement orders and Apple has reconciled with FTC in January 2014 by responding to a total of $ 32.5 million (about 3.3 billion yen) refund for 37,000 customers.

ByInsidi 0us

The FTC recommends to Amazon Amazon, "Please notify that fact in the case of paying fee, change operation so as to ask explicit agreement such as password input", and in case it is not executed, When I made an order for improvement with a strong attitude that Amazon does not order it, on July 1, 2014 Amazon sent a letter to the FTC "to appeal the validity of the company's service at court" and refused firmly.

In response to this response, FTC officially filed suit against Amazon on July 10, 2014 seeking to return money monetarily charged by intra-application billing. Amazon claims that it is making a refund promptly to customers complaining, but the FTC does not clearly explain to customers how to process a procedure for Amazon to request a refund due to unauthorized in-app charges It is pointed out that it is creating further confusion.