The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon, saying the company hasn’t done enough to prevent kids from making unauthorized in-app purchases, according to a complaint filed Thursday in federal court. The move had been expected since last week, when Amazon said it wouldn't settle with the FTC over the charges and had already refunded money to parents who complained. The dispute is over in-app charges in children's games on Kindle devices, where it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate whether users are spending virtual or real currency to acquire virtual items. When it introduced in-app charges in 2011, a password was not required to make a purchase. That changed in 2012, when Amazon required a password for charges over $20. In 2013, the company updated password protection again, but in a way that allowed windows of time where children could still make purchases, according to the FTC complaint. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring refunds to consumers for unauthorized charges. It also seeks to ban Amazon from billing account holders for in-app charges made without their consent.
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IN-DEPTH
Amazon Challenges FTC Penalties Over Children's In-App Mobile Purchases
Apple Offers iTunes Credits to Parents for In-app Purchases Made by Kids
-The Associated Press