Amazon refunding $70M of kids’ unauthorized in-app purchases

Enlarge / Amazon Kids Fire Edition tablet computers in 2015. (credit: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

After years of court battles with the US Federal Trade Commission, Amazon has agreed to pay up to $70 million to parents whose kids made in-app purchases without permission.

The refunds began yesterday. Affected customers should be receiving an e-mail from Amazon. You can also check if you're owed a refund by clicking this Amazon link for "in-app refunds."

The FTC sued Amazon in 2014, saying the company had insufficient safeguards preventing kids from making purchases, some of which ranged into the hundreds of dollars. When Amazon first launched its Kindle Fire OS, the default settings had parental controls turned off, while in-app purchases were allowed. Kids could charge their parents up to $99.99 for a single in-app purchase, often without needing a password, according to the FTC.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments