When some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards. We wanted to reach every customer who might have been affected, so we sent emails to 28 million App Store customers - anyone who had made an in-app purchase in a game designed for kids. Last year, we set out to refund any in-app purchase which may have been made without a parent’s permission. We even created additional steps in the purchasing process, because these steps are so helpful to parents. We heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements. The 15-minute window had been there since the launch of the App Store in 2008 and was aimed at making the App Store easy to use, but some younger customers discovered that it also allowed them to make in-app purchases without a parent’s approval.
#MEMO TIM COOK APPLE PASSWORD#
When in-app purchases were enabled and a password was entered to download an app, the App Store allowed purchases for 15 minutes without requiring a password. When we introduced in-app purchases in 2009, we proactively offered parents a way to disable the function with a single switch. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don’t even review the apps they sell to children. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we’ve continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple’s own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages.įrom the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents’ consent. I want to let you know that Apple has entered into a consent decree with the U.S.
“We believe our agreement provides more robust relief,” she said.
#MEMO TIM COOK APPLE FULL#
In a Wednesday morning news conference, FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez said the FTC feels that its decree better serves consumers who unwittingly racked up massive in-app charges because it requires full refunds. “The consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren’t already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight,” Cook said. Cook said the company was more willing to do so because it was hardly onerous. “To us, it smacked of double jeopardy.”īut in the end, Apple agreed to the proposed decree anyway. “It doesn’t feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled,” Cook wrote. In an all-hands memo sent to employees this morning and obtained by Re/code, CEO Tim Cook said Apple agreed to the deal because it felt it had no other choice. The company must also change its billing practices to ensure that it has obtained consumers’ express consent for in-app purchases before charging them. Under the terms of the agreement, Apple must provide full refunds to consumers affected by confusion over in-app purchases, doling out a minimum of $32.5 million in redress.
Apple today signed a consent decree with the agency, addressing now two-year-old complaints that the company didn’t do enough to prevent children from buying currency or points inside apps and games without a clear understanding that they were spending real money. Looks like Apple’s settlement last year of a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of in-app purchasing in games and apps sold through the App Store wasn’t enough for the Federal Trade Commission.
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