Unpacking the BEUC complaint against in-game purchases | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

Between 2012 and 2015, when free-to-play mobile games were hitting their stride, European regulatory interest was at its peak.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority was frequently ruling against the marketing of 'free games', the EU's CPC Network published its common position on consumer protection in online games, and a case around the direct exhortation of children in Runes of Magic reached German's highest civil court.

For the past seven or so years, the focus for European policymakers has predominantly been loot boxes. The debate around whether they should be more tightly regulated under gambling legislation, youth protection laws or broader consumer protection legislation rumbles on today.

The last couple of months have, however, marked a step-change in the European Union's focus on consumer protection.

In September this year, the European consumer group BEUC (an acronym that originates from its French name, 'Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs') published a report that takes aim at certain in-game purchase practices.

In particular, the BEUC report heavily criticises the use of premium currency, particularly in relation to purchases made by children and teenagers. Below, we dig a little further into some of the alleged issues raised by the BEUC report.

The BEUC report states that children are often spending in games without their parents' knowledge or authorisation – the article cited in the report (See 'Kids Who Wasted Thousands of Dollars on Gaming', published by Grunge in 2023) is a compendium of articles which themselves were published between 2013 and 2016.

This is not to deny that this issue has been entirely eradicated. However, there is evidence to suggest that its importance is diminishing; for example, the most recent survey from Video Games Europe indicated that spend by children on video games has in fact decreased.

This is also not a games-specific issue (see for example, here and here). Mitigating the risks of unauthorised spending relies on