After the slew of controversies over in-app purchases and an instruction from the European Commission to appropriately market the games that are free to use but include in-app purchases, Google has agreed to adopt some transparence in the way such apps are advertised.
The European Commission advised both Google and Apple to follow more accurate terms to market the games which requires purchase of in-app items to proceed to higher levels quickly. The Commission has also instructed the companies to not encourage children to buy in-app items for real money as they rack up huge bills without the parents’ knowledge.
The European Commission has also asked the companies to introduce “time-framed” measures to monitor consumer law breaches and prevent children from making unauthorized in-app purchases.
Google responded to the EC positively and committed to stop marketing the games that include in-app purchases as free by the end of September 2014. However, the company has not answered the most obvious question of whether or not it will be implemented in the US or other non-European countries.
Apple uses a verification system that requires the user to key in the password for every in-app purchase, and has responded to the EU’s warning stating that it has already start implementing controls on in-app purchases.
Apparently, Google Play Store will not have the word “free” on any app labels that include in-app purchases. The game promotions on the homepage of the Play Store are also to be called off as they can’t be called “free” anymore.
Google included in-app purchases briefly after Apple App Store introduced them and both companies faced similar issues related to it.
Google is expected introduce a new category which includes games in which in-app purchases are a part of the games. However, there’s no official word from Google as to how the changes will be made in its Play Store.
