Apple has announced it will refund consumers millions of dollars to consumers for letting kids make app purchases without their parents' consent, according to Reuters.
Apple will pay at least $32.5 million after reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission this week.
FTC Commissioner Edith Ramirez said Apple will also have to change its billing strategy to make sure it obtains consent from parents before charges can be made for services like apps or music.
"Whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said Ramirez, according to Reuters. "You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize."
The FTC claims Apple doesn't inform account holders that entering their password while using Apple's App Store allows for a 15-minute window in which kids can make unlimited charges.
Ramirez estimated that children spent millions of dollars without their parents' knowledge in 2013.
One mother claims her daughter spent $2,600 while playing "Tap Pet Hotel."
Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a memo out to employees recently referring to a class action settlement reached in June where the company had to pay a family $100 million to parents whose kids made unauthorized purchases while using an Apple device.
"It doesn't feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it smacked of double jeopardy," Cook said in the memo. "However, the consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren't already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight."
The FTC claims to have received "tens of thousands of complaints" from people over purchases through apps, according to Reuters.
All of Apple's new apps aimed at children will have new disclosures. The disclosures have not been added yet however.
"To be clear, the issue is not that Apple opens a 15-minute window for in-app purchases," Ramirez said. "What we challenge is the fact that Apple does not inform users of the existence of the window. When parents enter a password, they do not know the full scope of charges they could incur."
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