Messaging on mobile games has emerged as a new risk for bill shock caused by purchases made from mobile applications, warns a consumer protection panel of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
A man enjoys the Cookie Run mobile game. The NBTC's consumer protection panel is working to prevent bill shock from playing such games. APICHIT JINAKUL
The warning came after the panel received a complaint from a father saying his seven-year old son had run up a 2,325-baht bill playing Gameloft even though the phone had a 1,000-baht limit.
The boy racked up the high bill with an undisclosed operator as he was charged for SMS chats from Windows Phone Store's Gameloft.
Saree Ongsomwang, chairwoman of the NBTC's consumer protection panel, said the father claimed not to know he would have to pay for chatting after he downloaded the game via his mobile.
The bill showed the boy used the chatting app to invite friends for 31 transactions at 75 baht per time.
Ms Saree said it was unfair for consumers if game apps did not provide clear details about purchases of add-on or unknown items that could cause the player to face a large bill.
"SMS chatting is more expensive than downloading the Gameloft game, which costs 50 baht," she said.
Ms Saree said the panel will raise the issue with the NBTC's office this week for consideration.
"We'll urge the regulator to impose preventive measures to govern the mobile game market," she said.
She believes this case is just one of many similar ones in Thailand.
Ms Saree said the NBTC did not have enough regulations to govern bill shock from the purchase of online applications, game items and stickers despite having imposed a data usage limit of 1,000 baht for mobiles.
Mobile games are the fastest growing segment of the market with explosive growth.
In June, the NBTC asked Google Thailand to develop its Google Play system for data downloads to prevent bill shock from the purchase of applications.
The move came after a farmer's 12-year-old son racked up a bill of more than 200,000 baht in mobile game charges with Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) while purchasing items from Line's Cookie Run game.
The boy said he did not know he would have to pay for the downloaded items, which were added to his mother's phone bill despite the fact she had imposed a usage limit on the phone of 1,000 baht.
Google agreed to set a credit limit of 1,000 baht for the purchase of mobile apps. Users must also encode before each download and receive an email confirmation.
Meanwhile, mobile operators have agreed to cooperate in preventing bill shock.
AIS will limit content and applications usage to 2,000 baht for postpaid customers and in the future will allow customers to create their own limits.
In April, AIS allowed customers using Android-based mobiles to buy content and applications from Google's Play Store, enabling users to pay for the content via their mobile bills instead of using a credit or debit card.
DTAC and True Move still require their customers to use a credit or debit card.