In the year 2014 began a long legal battle between the giant’s sales, Amazon, and the United States Government, to account in app purchases or purchases within the application that were made by children. This battle, three years more afternoon, could be about to come to an end, and not pita nothing good for Amazon.
The Federal Trade Commission has revealed an agreement that has come with Amazon and according to which the company agrees to put end to their appeals in this case, as well as refund these purchases affected parents. Operation total could exceed $ 70 million.
Logic prevails: Amazon shall return the charged for unauthorized purchases
As we said at the beginning, the case was initiated in the year 2014, when the FTC charged for the first time Amazon put too easy children to make purchases within the app without the permission of their parents.
In 2016, a judge reached an agreement with the FTC and ordered Amazon reimburse parents at least one of the purchases made by their children. However, the Court also ruled against the request of the FTC an injunction against Amazon, which would have prevented it from Amazon to continue to maintain the same behavior in the future. Both the FTC and Amazon presented resources separated against the decisions of the judge.
Thus the Federal Trade Commission of United States has explained it in a statement posted on its web page of April 4, 2017:
A federal district court found in April 2016 that Amazon billed consumers for unauthorized application charges incurred by children using mobile applications such as Games downloaded through the application of the company store. The Court found that Amazon did not get the consent of the parents for the posts in the application made by their children.
In that same judgment, the Court also denied the request of the FTC an injunction that would have prohibited to Amazon from similar conduct in the future. The FTC appealed the refusal of the court order, and Amazon then appealed the decision of the Court that the company had violated the law. District Court suspended his order demanding that Amazon began offering refunds to injured consumers while appeals were pending.
Now, both parties have decided to complete the process, which means that the process of reimbursement which the judge found originally can continue. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) estimates that Amazon will have to return to parents around 70 million dollars in in app purchases by children between November 2011 and may 2016. The details of how that will work the rebate program will be “announced shortly”. Neither proved an exact date in which Amazon will start the process of money-back cobra parents, only indicated that the end of the litigation “will allow the refund process to begin soon”.
The agreement advocates a basic principle for all companies
Thomas B. Pahl, interim director of the Office of protection to the consumer of the Commission Federal de Commerce of United States, has declared that “this case shows what should be a principle for all companies, should obtain the consent of customers before charging them. Consumers affected by the practices of Amazon now can be compensated on charges that were not expecting or authorized”.
With this decision, Amazon joins other companies like Apple Inc. and Google Inc., which also had to return millions of dollars parents on unauthorized charges in respect of purchases in app in 2014, and that while all balked at the start.
