Unauthorised apple purchase

Morglin

I don’t know if this will be any use.  But it seems to include unauthorised spending by a child.  Good luck.

“Go to reportaproblem.apple.com. Sign in with your Apple ID and password. If you see the 'Report' or 'Report a Problem' button next to the item that you want to request a refund for, click it. Follow the instructions on the page to choose the reason why you want a refund and submit your request“
.20 Aug 2020

support.apple.com › en-gb

Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple – Apple Support

sheramber

Morglin said:

I don’t know if this will be any use.  But it seems to include unauthorised spending by a child.  Good luck.

“Go to reportaproblem.apple.com. Sign in with your Apple ID and password. If you see the 'Report' or 'Report a Problem' button next to the item that you want to request a refund for, click it. Follow the instructions on the page to choose the reason why you want a refund and submit your request“
.20 Aug 2020

support.apple.com › en-gb

Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple – Apple Support

thOP said Apple  advised it was bought from a third party . not from Apple.

born_again

jon81uk said:

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

It functions correctly and within Apple's rules in which case it is "operator error" as a result of allowing a five year old unsupervised access. In that case you are not entitled to a refund. That doesn't mean you won't get one, you might as a "gesture of goodwill" and everybody will have their own views on the rights and wrongs of that.

Actually if a minor does it without permission. There is a right to a refund.
Apple, google etc will all refund once. if it happens again. Well that is life and customer has to deal with it.

I don't think there is any legal rights to that effect?

I can only go on experience and the number of cases where this has happened and Apple etc have refunded.

They were hammered in US courts over this and had to refund millions $ back to people. The EU was also looking at this and this is why they started doing the same over here, rather than face being dragged through the courts and the massive fines it would mean.

Aylesbury_Duck

born_again said:

jon81uk said:

born_again said:

Undervalued said:

It functions correctly and within Apple's rules in which case it is "operator error" as a result of allowing a five year old unsupervised access. In that case you are not entitled to a refund. That doesn't mean you won't get one, you might as a "gesture of goodwill" and everybody will have their own views on the rights and wrongs of that.

Actually if a minor does it without permission. There is a right to a refund.
Apple, google etc will all refund once. if it happens again. Well that is life and customer has to deal with it.

I don't think there is any legal rights to that effect?

I can only go on experience and the number of cases where this has happened and Apple etc have refunded.

They were hammered in US courts over this and had to refund millions $ back to people. The EU was also looking at this and this is why they started doing the same over here, rather than face being dragged through the courts and the massive fines it would mean.

And rightly so.  Despite my contention that parents shouldn't be letting young children access web-enabled devices unsupervised in the first place, let alone downloading and allowing them to use games with adverts and in-app purchases, in genuine cases where a minor has incurred charges on a parent's account, the parent should be refunded.  

BooJewels

In the OFT 'Principles' document about games and apps that I referenced in an earlier post, it does state things like "Traders must ensure that, at the point of each purchase, the consumer explicitly acknowledges his/her obligation to pay" and "Games should not include practices that are aggressive, or which otherwise have the potential to exploit a child’s inherent inexperience, vulnerability or credulity or to place undue influence or pressure on a child to make a purchase. The younger a child is, the greater the likely impact those practices will have, and the language, presentation, design and structure of the game should take account of that."  Also:  "The commercial intent of any in-game promotion of paid-for content, or promotion of any other product or service, should be clear and distinguishable from gameplay. The younger he/she is, the more difficult it is likely to be for a consumer to identify the commercial intent of a commercial practice in certain contexts, and the language, design and structure of the game should take that into account."

So I think there is certainly requirement on game designers to not allow young children to be able to make purchases quite so easily.  That was why I encouraged the OP to examine the game and see just how the child was able to run up such a bill.  It may be that they can argue that the game design did not meet such recommended principles.

powerful_Rogue

BooJewels said:

In the OFT 'Principles' document about games and apps that I referenced in an earlier post, it does state things like "Traders must ensure that, at the point of each purchase, the consumer explicitly acknowledges his/her obligation to pay" and "Games should not include practices that are aggressive, or which otherwise have the potential to exploit a child’s inherent inexperience, vulnerability or credulity or to place undue influence or pressure on a child to make a purchase. The younger a child is, the greater the likely impact those practices will have, and the language, presentation, design and structure of the game should take account of that."  Also:  "The commercial intent of any in-game promotion of paid-for content, or promotion of any other product or service, should be clear and distinguishable from gameplay. The younger he/she is, the more difficult it is likely to be for a consumer to identify the commercial intent of a commercial practice in certain contexts, and the language, design and structure of the game should take that into account."

So I think there is certainly requirement on game designers to not allow young children to be able to make purchases quite so easily.  That was why I encouraged the OP to examine the game and see just how the child was able to run up such a bill.  It may be that they can argue that the game design did not meet such recommended principles.

Robolox is rated 12+, so it may have been designed to meet the requirements of a 12+ game and not that of a 5 year old.

BooJewels

Maybe we're looking at different things, but Roblox is rated Pegi 7 in the Google Play store (don't have an iPad to check Apple) and described as "perfect for kids"

powerful_Rogue

BooJewels said:

Maybe we're looking at different things, but Roblox is rated Pegi 7 in the Google Play store (don't have an iPad to check Apple) and described as "perfect for kids"

Neither do I, but a look at the game on the appstore says 12+

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/roblox/id431946152

BooJewels

How odd - and the Windows version states 10+.  If the Apple version is 12+ it somewhat weakens the OP's argument. Although she did say it was a different app that ran up the greater proportion of the bill.  They must be different versions - that must only lead to confusion.