Apple, without making any big announcements, has made a minor yet noticeable change to its App Store (for iOS devices) and Mac App Store by changing the 'Free' label on the download button for free apps to 'Get'.
While there's no official word on the reason behind the change, it might be a reaction to the pressure Apple is facing from the European Commission. As per the European Commission (via Techcrunch), games labelled as 'Free' can mislead customers as they don't explicitly specify the presence of in-app purchases in the app. If this is indeed a reaction to pressure from the EC, Apple doesn't seem to be limiting the change to European regions or only for games, but has begun is rolling it out worldwide. Notably, not all free apps are marked as 'Get' - some Apple apps are still marked as 'Free' - though the differing labels don't seem related to the presence of in-app purchases.
The move by Apple doesn't seem aimed at making it harder for children to rack-up hefty in-app purchases, an issue the company has been pulled up for several times in the past; however, only at making it plainly obvious that almost nothing is free.
A report from June this year stated one case in Britain, where an 8-year-old girl managed to run up a bill of GBP 4,000 (roughly Rs. 3,88,000) making "in-app" purchases from games such as My Horse and Smurfs' Village. In that instance, Apple reimbursed the girl's father.
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