International in-app purchases have been stopped in Pakistan, including those sold through video games.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (via Bloomberg), telecom providers in the country are violating regulations by letting customers make purchases in entertainment apps, including video games, through billing directly with the carrier.
SBP’s current policies state that certain IT services can be paid for through a telecom company, and companies wishing to do so require one-time approval from a bank through which payments can be processed. Customers can then pay for the services through their phone bill.
Services provided by SBP include such as international bandwidth, software licensing and support, and electronic media services, but exclude entertainment content such as in-game microtransactions.
“The telecom companies allowed their customers to purchase the above products over airtime and then transfer funds abroad reflecting such transactions as payments for the purchase of IT-related services,” the SBP said in a statement. “Thus, the telcos actually acted as intermediaries/payment aggregators by facilitating the purchase of services by their subscribers.
“Therefore, SBP has revoked the designation of banks by telecom companies for such payments in the face of violations of foreign exchange regulations.”
The SBP encouraged banks to reapply to allow “legitimate IT-related payments.”
In the same statement, SBP denied claims that it specifically withheld payments to Google, calling reports of such “unsubstantiated and misleading”.
