A federal judge has ruled against Amazon in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The judge says Amazon is liable for unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids in its app store.
The FTC's press release states:
The judge's order in the case finds that Amazon received many complaints from consumers about surprise in-app charges incurred by children, citing the fact that the company's disclosures about the possibility of in-app charges within otherwise "free" apps were not sufficient to inform consumers about the charges.
The FTC previously settled similar disputes with Google and Apple for in-app purchases made by kids in their own app stores. However, Amazon did not make the same decision. Now the FTC says it will ask the judge in the case to rule for "full refunds to consumers as a result of Amazon's actions"
Reader comments
Amazon on the hook for unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids
I know when I got my daughter a kindle reader I had to go through hoops to make sure she couldn't make unauthorized purchases. I had to create a separate account and email for just this reader. I bought an amazon gift card for $10 and tied it to the email. That way should could make a small purchase and not spend too much. I don't remember if I had to originally tie in a credit card and then remove it. I think it did require 1 click on for that account. In this case it was only used by her so the work arounds were a bit of a pain but doable. If it were a shared device it wouldn't work as easily. I also had to spend a bunch of time figuring out how I could get around the 1 click requirement. This was all for just a reader not a fire tablet. I think requiring 1 click was definitely a reason to hold them accountable.
I do have to say that Amazon is good about refunding money if you accidentally purchase a book. A couple of times on my own account I was "buying" a bunch of free books and a paid one slipped in the mix. I didn't realize it until I got the receipt. I contacted them and they immediately refunded me and took the book off my account.
It seems really lame that the company (amazon, in this case) has to pay a price for the stupidity of users. Its not hard to secure a device, it is the responsibility of the user. I'm tired of people who are simply "bad with technology" getting a free pass for the "i didn't know what I was doing" excuse. If i cant use that excuse for speeding in court they shouldn't be able to either. Ignorance is not the same thing as innocence.
It is funny you talk about ignorance and call people stupid and lame for not securing their devices when the problem here was than Amazon required you to make your device insecure. Their more problematic requirement was forcing you to activate their 1 click purchase option.
So you can't tell your kid to not buy anything on the app store? And that's Amazon's fault how??
If you had used Amazon Store during those dark times you would be able to answer the question. And if you had read the comments here too.
That one click thing got them
Posted via the Android Central App
I don't give my devices to kids.
If you give an unlocked device to a kid with no lockouts for buying apps, you deserve what you get.
Amazon sells tables for kids.
Their is nothing wrong with giving a kid a device only the dumb ones purchase random things on it
Posted from my Moto X 2nd gen and my Nexus 9 both on Android Marshmallow
All mute point, Apple was the first one they went after, once Apple lost you know they were going to go after everyone else. All the current AppStore models are greatly influence by Apple (Apps Store).
Unlike the google App Store or the Apple Store, Amazon has zero controls. The only restriction is if your child can use the App Store. That doesn't prevent in app purchases. Amazon also confuses the situation by having "actually free" apps which allow unlimited in-app purchases. If you don't create a separate Amazon account for your kid, they go against your account and your default card and one touch purchase settings. As I said, zero restrictions from preventing purchases. So before you scream about "idiot" parents, go try out the Amazon App Store and come up with a way to restrict a child's from in-app purchases while also allowing them to download free games.
Well there's your solution. Separate account for children.
Posted via the Android Central App
That is possible now but when the Kindle Fires first came out, they were required to be registered to an Amazon account to activate the device. To have an account with Amazon during this time, it had to be an adult with a credit card tied to the account. Many kids have Amazon Kindle Fires and many free apps had in-app purchases.
Then you will have to pay monthly fees for Prime for the kids as well because there is no way to share the Prime membership.
All good points - Amazon's app (not just mobile store) is designed that way. I myself clicked/tapped on "buy" for a product I liked, and the next screen that showed was "thank you for your purchase". what..???
Anyhow I hate the freemuim crap and believe it is meant to deceive consumer.
Having said that, I would never give my phone to a child without any protections of course.
Still, Amazon should not be responsible for what your kids do. They did not force them to buy stuff. I have both a 10 and 7 yr old, and they both have tablets to play games, and do educational stuff on. BUT they are not let loose to do whatever they want. If you put a sandbox in, a nice one that allows customization, they will be able to do what they need to and NO RISK of in app purchases as it blocks them ALL. So this stuff is solely the adults responsibility to watch the kid and teach them what to not do etc. Total discipline issue, not Amazon's. Thanks for increasing costs for us loyal Amazon customers, as they'll have to recoup the cost of this lawsuit somewhere.
I think the biggest issue was unlike the other app stores Amazon requires (or did) 1-click purchasing to use it. This means Amazon took the choice away from you to safeguard your device.
You can require a password for purchase. Just go to settings in the amazon appstore app. Turn on parental controls. You can also turn off in app purchases under settings also.
The other amazon store apps you can also turn off one-click if you had turned it on.
I was one of those parents whose kid bought an app accidently, because i didnt turn on controls. I called amazon and they refunded the purchase and also told me how to turn on parental controls. After that point its on me.
Posted via the Android Central App
As it was said many times, all that was not posible in former time. You even were required to activate the 1 click purchase option.
This is complete crap.......another example of this society. Blame others for everything and take no personal responsibility.
Posted via the Android Central App
Well said.
Posted via the Android Central App
Yep
Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
Truth
Posted from Nexus 6 running Android N
You either do not have kids, or never played games or never used the Amazon Store, or most probably all of them.
There was one point where you were required to activate the 1-click-purchasing option in order to do several things in the Amazon Store. So a window with and ad will popup mid game and the kid will very fast try to get rid of it, some popups were intentionally designed in a confusing way. So in a matter of a split of a second the kid will buy something.
So, as you can see, there is not a matter of lack of supervision, it could even happen to adults as well. As as you can see everything was setup in a way to trick you, it was very easy to see that there were malicious intentions in the whole setup.
Since then they have removed the requirement to activate the 1-click-purchasing which was the most evil part. They have as well allowed to create separate accounts for the kids not linked to your main Amazon Account (notice this was no possible before). But this is not yet a solution if you are a Prime member because then you will need as well a separate Prime membership for every kid.
Honestly I never felt Google or Apple were trying to trick me or my kids into buying things by mistake, while it was clear Amazon was doing it in the past.
It is very easy to give bold opinions like yours when you actually did not experience it.
Yeah my kids can call someone in Scandinavia and Verizon can charge me a $1,000 or they can turn on the TV to some $50 Pay per view channel on Dish Network and the FCC could care less, but oh forbid the FCC to ignore complaints against Amazon for not doing more than fully disclosing in app purchases on devices parents have to sign into and add credit card numbers to as well.
Posted via the Android Central App
This is 100% garbage. Those sorry ass parents suck. Why in the hell would you give your child your device and then walk away????? Those parents are responsible for THEIR kids not Amazon!
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Agreed! I have my accounts set up where a password is needed for any and all purchases.
Posted via the Android Central App
On top of that, Amazon has better parental control options built in to their devices than Google or Apple. Any parent who does not try to use them should not be absolved of the responsbility for their kids actions.
Well Amazon at one point from what I remember required you to turn on 1-click purchasing to use apps. It removed the choice to disable this from the parents hand and for that I can understand why they should be held responsible. This happened to me where my son was on my device and and ad popped up on Amazon and he ended up purchasing a game. He had no idea he thought he was just skipping an ad and I only found out when I received the email saying he purchased it when I got my phone back. Now after that I uninstalled Amazon because of this requirement but I can understand how a child can rack up multiple charges.
For those saying you should monitor your kids this takes all of seconds. Oh and you must not have kids because you give them a phone so you can talk with another adult or do something else that needs to be done not to sit and stare at them.
Brb, off to buy gems and blame it on a toddler.
It's best to assume I'm being sarcastic. if I'm ever serious I'll type "/s" to make it clear.
Lol
Posted from my Moto X 2nd gen and my Nexus 9 both on Android Marshmallow