EU Commission Tells Google & Apple to Clearly Declare IAP

The European Commission has demanded that Google and Apple change their respective app stores to stop saying 'Free' in games that offer in-app purchases.

This is as a result of their investigation into various games full of IAP, such as Dungeon Keeper, 

Google have said that the Play Store will make it clearer, by September. It will cease to advertise 'free' games and will require additional checks before charges are made to payment methods. This means it will be harder to buy the card of your favourite X-Man in X-Men: Battle of the Atom, for instance, as well as making this notice larger:

Apple, however, are seemingly unwilling to take similar measures. They claim they are already doing enough, with a list of top selling IAP on the game pages and their upcoming iOS 8 feature "Ask to Buy".

While Google are making an overall effort, Apple seem to want to still ensure people upgrade, as no doubt iOS 8 will not work on some older devices, as iOS 7 does not. Except the gap will of course increase.

It is unclear whether Google's changes will be only for EU countries, but when they are implemented come September we should be able to see.

You can read the whole guideline here, but here are the main points:

Games advertised as "free" should not mislead consumers about the true costs involved;
Games should not contain direct exhortation to children to buy items in a game or to persuade an adult to buy items for them;
Consumers should be adequately informed about the payment arrangements for purchases and should not be debited through default settings without consumers’ explicit consent;
Traders should provide an email address so that consumers can contact them in case of queries or complaints.

The European Commission is in no way trying to remove IAP's as a business model, even stating:

"In-app purchases are a legitimate business model, but it's essential for app-makers to understand and respect EU law while they develop these new business models"

- Neelie Kroes, Vice President, European Commission