The US Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon Thursday for charging parents for what their children spent on online games without parental authorisation. The FTC said Amazon let kids playing online games to spend real money from their parents' accounts on virtual items - coins, stars and other items used in the game - without getting the consent of the parents.
It alleged that Amazon, which sold the apps for accessing the games, did not make clear to parents permitting the downloads that the users would be able to continue spending via "in-app charges" without controls. Meanwhile Apple collected 30 percent of the money spent by the game player, with the charges going to the account of the parents or others. The FTC suit cites Amazon internal documents from 2011 and 2012 showing the giant online vendor knew of the potential problem but took no action to stop it.
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