Google refund $19 billion - the American multinational corporation that specializes Internet services and products has announced today that it will be refunding the unfairly billed charges to parents whose kids enjoy playing and making in-app purchases using their smartphones and tablet devices, reported Reuters.
The Google refund $19 billion news comes after many parents raised their concern over the unfairly billed charges to their credit cards.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday the settlement that that will task Google to refund $19 billion to parents, whose credit cards were accessed by their kids without permission in making in-app purchases for a variety of games including Ice Age Village and Air Penguins.
According to the FTC, Google is now looking into a more efficient way to prompt parents and ensure that they agree to the in-app purchases their children make.
"We're glad to put this matter behind us so we can focus on creating more ways for people to enjoy all the entertainment they love," a Google spokesperson said.
The Google refund $19 billion news pretty much resembles what happened to Apple Inc. in January when the Cupertino-based company agreed to refund $32.5 million after a settlement has been reached.
Back then Apple also faced the same controversy for the unauthorized charges made by children.
The FTC maintains that both companies are pretty lax in giving children the right to charge their in-app purchases to their parents' credit cards.
"Children could rack up charges just by tapping on pop-up boxes," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said.
Meanwhile, Google claimed that it has already implemented changes on its charging mechanisms in March 2014.
The tech giant said that part of the changes is for consumers to choose whether they want to be prompted with each purchase, NewsWeek has learned.
