14 DAY TRIAL // Following complaints from parents all over Europe, the European Commission is meeting today with representatives from Apple Inc. and Google to discuss what there is to be done to fix the “freemium” app model which seems a little broken.
And that’s putting it mildly. Some parents have had to pay Apple thousands of dollars/pounds/euros over iTunes transactions carried out by their offspring on the family’s iPhone or iPad while playing these “freemium” titles.
Some examples of games that are free to download but have paid benefits inside include the widely popular Candy Crush Saga, Temple Run, Talking Tom, and many others, all targeted towards a young audience.
However, the EU is not talking about these titles in particular. In fact, these are the gems of the App Store compared to other titles that actually don’t do anything until you cough up the cash. And that's what the EU wants Apple and Google to fix.
“Children are particularly vulnerable to marketing of ‘free to download’ games which are not ‘free to play.’ Following complaints from all over Europe, the European Commission is meeting today and tomorrow (27 and 28 February) with national enforcement authorities and large tech companies in order to discuss these concerns,” the European Commission said.
Apple and Google, the two kings whose app stores are used by almost all smartphone owners out there, “will be asked to commit to providing solutions within a clear timeframe so as to ensure proper consumer protection for apps customers.”
Viviane Reding, the EU's justice commissioner, added that “Misleading consumers is clearly the wrong business model and also goes against the spirit of EU rules on consumer protection.”
“The European Commission will expect very concrete answers from the app industry to the concerns raised by citizens and national consumer organisations.”
Four main issues will be addressed in the meeting, as per the official announcement. The first and most important topic of discussion will be how to make games advertised as “free” no longer mislead people about the costs involved by enjoying the full experience.
The EU Commission also believes that “Games should not contain direct exhortations to children to buy items in a game or to persuade an adult to buy items for them,” something that is sometimes used in the advertising of various kiddy apps, including educational titles.
As far as the adult crowd is concerned, these too “should be adequately informed about the payment arrangements and purchases should not be debited through default settings without consumers’ explicit consent.”
The fourth topic of discussion will center around offering the customer some means of directly addressing the parts responsible for selling an app that ended up costing more money than the customer had initially expected.