Europe wants Apple to get serious about hidden costs of freemium apps

Europe wants Apple to get serious about hidden costs of freemium apps

<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><a href='http://www.imore.com/europe-demands-apple-get-serious-about-hidden-costs-free-apps' title="Europe wants Apple to get serious about hidden costs of freemium apps"><img src='http://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large_wm_brw/public/field/image/2014/04/in-app-purchases-ios-7.1.1.jpg?itok=WEqURIzN' />[/url]</p> <p>The European Commission is criticizing Apple for not doing enough to inform customers about the true costs of free apps that come with in-app purchases. The Commission wants Apple to make the real cost of these games apparent to customers before they download an app. Apple has yet to make a committment to address the issue. There are a number of protections that the European Commission are asking app distributers to put in place, according to the BBC:</p>

<ul><li>Games advertised as "free" should not mislead consumers about the true costs involved;</li> <li>Games should not contain direct exhortation to children to buy items in a game or to persuade an adult to buy items for them;</li> <li>Consumers should be adequately informed about the payment arrangements for purchases and should not be debited through default settings without consumers' explicit consent;</li> <li>Traders should provide an email address so that consumers can contact them in case of queries or complaints.</li> </ul>