We encountered quite a buzz around our recent ruling (2 July) on an EA Games direct mailing for mobile app game, Dungeon Keeper, and the claims “free”. Our ruling demonstrated that advertisers must make clear the limitations of free gameplay and the role of in-app purchasing to speed up gameplay, so that consumers are aware of the costs they might incur and aren’t misled.

Many popular apps are free to download, but often tempt users to pay for in-game enhancements - allowing for quicker progression. Offering in-app purchases is not inherently problematic, but placing undue restrictions on the basic game play unless these purchases are made is likely to be an issue, if that restriction isn’t made clear in the ad.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that our ruling attracted so much attention, considering it’s become a rather hot topic of late. It’s not just parents who’ve had to fork out bills to cover their kid’s gameplay who have been frustrated; our ruling also received support from those within the gaming community.

The buck doesn’t just stop with game developers, we’ve seen over the past fortnight that Apple has been criticised by the European Commission (EC), for not offering any "concrete and immediate" plans to stop users being misled by "free" apps. On top of that the EC is now forcing Apple and Google, the biggest vendors of apps, to make the "true cost" of games clear, and as such Google is said to have decided on a number of changes due to come into force by September 2014.

Greater transparency across the free-to-play industry will help to protect consumers. Our message to advertisers is that it doesn’t need to be game over, so long as they stick to the rules.

More information


Guidance for advertisers: Free claims: apps and games

 


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