苹果已经与美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）就应用内购买达成和解，结束了一场长期的法律诉讼，这场诉讼挑战了应用商店的大部分基本功能。由于家长控制不力，该公司被要求退还因错误收费而被收费的客户，向3.7万名不同的客户共支付了3250万美元。苹果还将被要求改变其收费方式，“以确保在对移动应用程序中销售的商品收费之前，已获得消费者的明示、知情同意。”

在一个案例中，一个女孩在15分钟内花了2600美元

根据9to5mac发布的苹果CEO蒂姆•库克（Tim Cook）在全公司范围内的一封信，苹果是在听取了未经家长允许而进行应用内购买的投诉后提出索赔的。作为回应，该公司向每一位在为儿童设计的应用程序中进行应用内购买的iOS用户发送了电子邮件，总计2800万个账户。在这2 800万人中，有3.7万人提出索赔，并得到了购买补偿。尽管联邦贸易委员会（FTC）的和解协议涉及面很广，但库克对员工们表示，“不要求我们做任何我们还没有做的事情。”

美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）对苹果的15分钟收费窗口提出了特别的异议，即在接下来的15分钟内，只需输入一个密码就可以授权无限收费。联邦贸易委员会主席伊迪丝·马丁内斯说，在一个案例中，一个女孩在15分钟的时间窗口内使用“Tap Pet Hotel”应用程序花费了2600多美元。马丁内斯说，问题不在于时间长短，而在于批准应用程序内购买的家长无法知道在该窗口内他们可能招致的全部费用。和解协议要求苹果修改其计费方式，以获得更明确的同意，最迟在今年3月31日实施新的保障措施。

蒂姆·库克写给员工的信转载如下。

I want to let you know that Apple has entered into a c***ent decree with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents’ c***ent. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages.

From the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple’s own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we’ve continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don’t even review the apps they sell to children.

When we introduced in-app purchases in 2009, we proactively offered parents a way to disable the function with a single switch. When in-app purchases were enabled and a password was entered to download an app, the App Store allowed purchases for 15 minutes without requiring a password. The 15-minute window had been there since the launch of the App Store in 2008 and was aimed at making the App Store easy to use, but some younger customers discovered that it also allowed them to make in-app purchases without a parent’s approval.

We heard from some customers with children that it was too easy to make in-app purchases, so we moved quickly to make improvements. We even created additional steps in the purchasing process, because these steps are so helpful to parents.

Last year, we set out to refund any in-app purchase which may have been made without a parent’s permission. We wanted to reach every customer who might have been affected, so we sent emails to 28 million App Store customers – anyone who had made an in-app purchase in a game designed for kids. When some emails bounced, we mailed the parents postcards. In all, we received 37,000 claims and we will be reimbursing each one as promised.

A federal judge agreed with our acti*** as a full settlement and we felt we had made things right for everyone. Then, the FTC got involved and we faced the prospect of a second lawsuit over the very same issue.

It doesn’t feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it **acked of double jeopardy. However, the c***ent 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 App Store is one of Apple’s most important innovati***, and it’s wildly popular with our customers around the world because they know they can trust Apple. You and your coworkers have helped Apple earn that trust, which we value and respect above all else.

Apple is a company full of disruptive ideas and innovative people, who are also committed to upholding the highest moral, legal and ethical standards in everything we do. As I’ve said before, we believe technology can serve humankind’s deepest values and highest aspirati***. As Apple continues to grow, there will inevitably be scrutiny and critici** along our journey. We don’t shy away from these kinds of questi***, because we are confident in the integrity of our company and our coworkers.

Thank you for the hard work you do to delight our customers, and for showing them at every turn that Apple is worthy of their trust.

Tim