Free to play games are misleading users

The European Commission has revealed plans to scrutinise games on mobiles and tablets that allow in-app purchases, often resulting in large credit bills for users

The commission will hold talks with industry representatives, policy-makers, and consumer protection authorities to generate clear guidelines.

The commission is concerned that more than half of the games available are advertised a “Free to play” but carry many hidden costs in the form of in-app purchases.

“Misleading consumers is clearly the wrong business model and also goes against the spirit of EU rules on consumer protection,” said the EU’s justice commissioner, Viviane Reding.

Children and teenagers have been identified as being at risk of inadvertently charging purchases to a registered credit card.

“Consumers, and in particular children, need better protection against unexpected costs from in-app purchases,” said Neven Mimica, the European commissioner for consumer policy.

Google and Apple are the big names taking part in inquiry alongside other companies, joined by consumer protection agencies from Denmark, Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Lithuania and Luxembourg.

The outcome of this inquiry will obviously have a big impact on the mobile games market. The EU market is reportedly expected to be worth 63 billion euro within the next five years. Users in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium spent an estimated 16.5 billion euros on online games in 2011.