The Federal Trade Commission announced last week it had reached a settlement with Google Inc., to compensate parents for unauthorized charges incurred by their children.
The $19 million agreement responds to complaints that Google unlawfully billed parents for their children’s unauthorized charges for using mobile applications downloaded from the Google Play app store.
Many consumers reported hundreds of dollars of such unauthorized charges, according to the complaint.
The settlement requires Google to refund unauthorized in-app charges incurred by children and to modify its billing practices to obtain express, informed consent from consumers before billing them for in-app charges, according to a news release from the FTC. If the company obtains consumers’ consent for future charges, consumers must have the option to withdraw their consent at any time.
Provided the settlement is finalized after a public comment period, Google will have 15 days to notify all consumers who placed an in-app charge about the refund process. Within 12 months, if Google has not refunded at least $19 million in charges, the remainder will be owed to the FTC.
“For millions of American families, smartphones and tablets have become a part of their daily lives,” FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in the release. “As more Americans embrace mobile technology, it’s vital to remind companies that time-tested consumer protections still apply, including that consumers should not be charged for purchases they did not authorize.”
The deal with Google is the FTC’s third such settlement, following similar agreements in recent months with Apple and Amazon.
