Jeff John Roberts for paidContent:

District Judge Edward Da Vila responded to Apple’s request by upholding four of the parents’ five claims, including allegations that Apple violated consumer protection laws by falsely marketing the apps as free:“Contrary to Apple’s argument, Plaintiffs have alleged with specificity which misrepresentations they were exposed to, their reliance on those misrepresentations, and the resulting harm. Plaintiffs pled specific facts that Apple “actively advertis[ed], market[ed] and promot[ed] its bait Apps as ‘free’ or nominal .”The ruling was issued last week but didn’t attract attention until Seattle tech lawyer Venkat Balasubramani wrote about it on Eric Goldman’s Law and Marketing Blog.

The next step is for Apple to file its defense, which it will do late next month.

Apple came under fire after some users – mainly children playing games – racked up large bills by making in-app purchases following the download of a game. Initially, Apple did not require users to re-input a password to make in-app purchases within 15 minutes of downloading the game.