The Office of Fair Trading, UK has warned the games industry over the aggressive in-app strategies employed by developers.
OFT concluded after a five month investigation of about 38 games that many are in direct violation of consumer protection laws as they are ‘exhorting’ children to make in-app purchases or nagging their parents to do it for them. The investigation was a direct result of parents’ complaints of hefty mobile bills resulting from app purchases without their knowledge.
OFT claimed that out of the 38 free games it investigated, most of the free games exploited the inexperience of children and some even went to the extent of portraying that other characters will be disappointed if users didn’t make an in-app purchase.
OFT has revealed through a statement that it was aware of instances wherein users were required to key-in the password only once during the initial purchase and the subsequent purchases didn’t require any sort of authorization. Further it also added that game developers were failing to include enough information that may influence the download decision by parents.
Under the eight draft principles designed to combat the huge in-app bills the watchdog wants developers to be more transparent and has asked them to publish the prices of various items, to implement proper payments authorisation, and use less aggressive in-app purchase strategies.
The draft also seeks developers to provide contact information to parents in case they wanted to file complaints. Further the watchdog also requires game developers to demarcate the actual game play and stuff that they advertise.
The draft principles have been put forwards but there is no means of actually ensuring that developers were following them by the word. For this reason, OFT wants platform providers like Google and Apple to report any breaches. The final guidelines are expected by February next year and operators will be required to implement the rules by April 1, 2014.
