San Diego County Sues AppLovin Over Adult Ads in Children’s Games
San Diego County alleges AppLovin served inappropriate ads in children’s games and tracked minors despite parental controls, seeking an injunction and penalties.
A loot box is a digital container whose exact contents are unknown until it is opened. It may be earned through play, bought directly, or acquired with virtual currency that can itself be purchased. Rewards can include cosmetics, characters, equipment, cards, or resources at different rarity levels. Because paid random items resemble chance-based spending, regulators, ratings organizations, platforms, and players scrutinize disclosure, age protections, probabilities, and design pressure. Not every random reward is sold, and not every microtransaction is random, so those terms should not be treated as interchangeable.
AppLovin alleges Unity used its Ad Quality SDK to collect rival advertising data, escalating a dispute over the software that monetizes mobile games.