Google Hit with Class Action Over In-App Game Currency Targeting Kids

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Nearly a year ago, Apple settled a class action lawsuit regarding in-app purchases made by children using smartphones and tablets, but there has been a gap in litigation for Android devices. That is no longer the case, thanks to a recently filed class action lawsuit accusing Google Inc. of exploiting children by enticing them to make in-app purchases without parental consent.

Lead plaintiff Ilana Imber-Gluck alleges in the Google game currency class action lawsuit that she bought a game for her son to use on her Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Android tablet. Without her consent, the child was able to purchase $65.95 of in-game currency within 30 minutes of her installing the original app. This is only possible, her class action lawsuit argues, because Google fails to properly protect children.

For example, Imber-Gluck and other Google Play users are unaware, according to the class action, that once they input their password to purchase an app, that additional purchases can be made for 30 minutes following the initial log-in. This can constitute either buying other applications or “in-app currency” that can be used to buy power-ups or access additional features within an already downloaded game or app.

Google, rather than the developers, is the named defendant because the company must approve all apps prior to their appearance on its Google Play store, and in addition is the vendor for any purchases and “no app developer ever receives a Google app customer’s credit (or debit) card number… when the app is purchased through the Google Play store.”

The Google in-app purchase class action lawsuit also argues that the company is aware of the fact that those in-app purchases likely targets for children due to a lack of clarity regarding what the purchase will cost as well as the “highly addictive” nature of the games “and tend to compel children playing them to purchase large quantities of game currency.” Further, anyone using an Android device “even if a minor” can make purchases for that 30-minute period, without the authorization of the account holder.

A $32.5 million class action settlement over similar allegations raised against Apple is referenced in the Android case because the Google competitor updated its App Store so that a user’s password must be submitted prior to any purchase. Doing so would have limited the potential for Imber-Gluck and other parents to see significant charges made by their children, and one of the legal questions is whether or not “Google’s scheme to induce minors to purchase game currency violates California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act.”

The putative class is represented by class action lawyers James Patterson of Patterson Law Group, Todd Carpenter of Carpenter Law Group, Benjamin Sweet and Edwin Kilpela Jr. of Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd LLC and Shannon Carson and Patrick Madden of Berger

The Children’s Google In-App Purchasing Class Action Lawsuit is Ilana Imber-Gluck, et al. v. Google Inc., Case No. 14-cv-01070, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

UPDATE: Google motioned a federal judge to dismiss the Google in-app purchase class action lawsuit on May 5, 2014.

UPDATE 2: On April 3, 2015, a California federal judge denied Class certification to the Google in-app purchase class action lawsuit because the issue has already been resolved in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.