One of the absolutely unsurprising things that happened once the iPad caught on was that parents gave their children free run of their expensive tablet, and said kiddies proceeded to ding Mommy and Daddy’s credit card with in-app purchases.
Also unsurprising was the fact that these people, instead of accepting that giving your kid a device connected to your credit card was pretty stupid, instead sued Apple. And they won. But, on the other hand, they didn’t win much.
To be fair, getting whacked with a $1400 Smurfberry bill is pretty ridiculous, but so’s giving a kid an iPad in the first place. Nonetheless, it was ruled that Apple has to compensate these parents for their inability to analyze cause and effect… with a gift card:
As part of a preliminary deal that has yet to be finalized by a U.S. district court judge, Apple will pay those eligible class members a $5 iTunes gift card. Users that spent more than $30 can choose to get a cash refund, as long as they meet a handful of requirements, including filling out a form that details what apps the charges originated from.
So for their troubles, the people who levied this lawsuit against Apple to protect them from realizing they’re not terribly good at this parenting thing will be given a $5 credit and told to go away.
Wait, isn’t that really the behavior that got these parents into this trouble in the first place?