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Thursday, January 30, 2014

UK Office of Fair Trading gives mobile game producers two months to sort their apps out

The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published a set of principles that clarify its position on the legal obligations of the online and app-based games industry. It follows last year’s investigation into gaming industry practices that were potentially misleading or broke consumer protection laws in other ways.

The principles cover:

  • An accurate description of the game before customers play, download or pay
  • Clear up-front pricing
  • Any use of personal data
  • Information about the game provider
  • Separating paid-for content and promotional material from the game
  • Misleading explanations about the need to pay for in-game items
  • Placing undue influence or pressure on children to make purchases
  • Encouraging children to make a purchase
  • Ensuring all payments are authorised by the account holder

Games producers are being given until 1st April 2014 to ensure their games don’t break the law. In addition, the OFT has published guidance for parents to help make sure that children don’t make unexpected in-game purchases. It says almost 90% of children aged between seven and 15 have played online games in the past six months, with half of them paying to play on at least one occasion.

Clive Maxwell, Chief Executive of the OFT, said “Many children enjoy playing these types of games. This rapidly growing creative sector has also brought wider economic benefits. The on-line and apps based games industry has already made significant improvements during our consultation process. But it still needs to do more to protect children and treat its customers fairly. Our principles make clear the type of practices that games makers and platform operators should avoid. Parents and carers have an important role to help protect their child and their bank balance. Our advice is that parents check their device settings, play their child's games themselves and read the game's description online. Parents will also be encouraged to report concerns to Citizens Advice.”

The new Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will be responsible for these new principles from April. It’ll combine the activities of the Competition Commission with all of the competition functions and some of the consumer functions currently handled by the Office of Fair Trading.

[OFT Principles for online and app-based games (pdf)]

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Opinion Articles

‘The Eyes Have It’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

DoCoMo are one of many network operators and handset manufacturers demonstrating innovative new products as Mobile World Congress. Our eye was caught by the employee demonstrating “Eye Controlled Earphones”. It’s a good job the ladies from the CBOSS stand weren’t walking past at the time.

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'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

Author: The Fonecast
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‘Innovation Corner’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

Author: The Fonecast
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Google “Mobile First” from Eric Schmidt’s Key Note at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

Author: The Fonecast
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The great Windows Mobile 7 conspiracy theory

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a good conspiracy theory. A good one, mind you. None of this “Funny thing happened on the way to Mars” nonsense. Oh no, not me. And, despite occasionally mirroring Jerry Fletcher by balancing a bottle on the door handle, I’ve never been inclined to publish such a theory. Until now.

You see, it’s Mobile World Congress in a fortnight’s time. Which is when the great and the good of the mobile industry – along with their mates and hangers-on – head for Barcelona. Microsoft will be there. They’re holding a press briefing on Monday afternoon. And there’s a lot of talk about Windows Mobile 7 being (unofficially) on the agenda. But where’s the evidence?

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