Did I Just Pay For That?
Guidelines on good practice for in-app and in-game purchasing on the way.
The Office of Fair Trading has been investigating in-app and in-game payment by children on their parent’s accounts. CMF has been working closely with them to put them in touch with sources of research and industry expertise, and the consultation has just finished its final phase.
OFT has listened to the views of the games producers, conducted research and produced their proposed best practice guidelines. This has now completed its final consultation phase, before they issue an industry guideline in the new year - after which, if companies fail to comply, they could be fined under existing Consumer Protection legislation.
CMF has submitted a final comment on the OFT proposals. We feel that while the guidelines are good as far as they go, they emphasise the role of the producer of the game and put almost no responsibility on the platform providers - e.g. the “store” where the game is purchased, or the device to which it’s supplied. Once again the big boys and girls are let off the hook.
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