Google Hit With Lawsuit Over Children's In-App Purchases

Google may be following in Apple's footsteps down the path to legal trouble due to in-app purchases made by children.

Representatives from four law firms — two in California and two in Pennsylvania — hit Google with a class action suit on behalf of parents in the U.S. who paid for their children's unauthorized in-app purchases on Google's Android mobile operating system. The suit comes less than two months after Apple, for the same reasons Google is being sued, paid $32.5 million in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The issue has to do with passwords. A user is required to enter his or her password to purchase an Android app or in-app currency that's often associated with gaming apps. After initially entering the password, however, users can make subsequent purchases without re-entering one for 30 minutes, according to the law firms representing the class of plaintiffs. Read more...