Earlier today, a story appeared on PocketGamer.biz alleging that Apple had scolded Capcom over last week's $1400 smurfberry scandal. The report was based on comments from an anonymous source who said that Apple was upset by the recent flurry of return requests due to children accidentally buying expensive virtual items in the online Capcom game Smurfs' Village [iTunes Link], and "had strong words" with Capcom over the issue. The report also said this controversy had prompted Apple to reconsider their iTunes log-in policies. However, when we spoke to representatives at Capcom, they said Apple never talked to them at all about this situation.

"We are in frequent communication with Apple, and at no point have they expressed any displeasure to any representatives of Capcom Mobile in regards to our handling of in-app purchases within Smurfs’ Village," said the Capcom representative.

The virtual Smurfberries in Smurfs' Village can be extremely expensive and have sparked many complaints from enraged parents whose children had unknowingly charged their iTunes accounts to buy $100 barrels of virtual berries. Outraged parents alleged that the only conceivable reason those digital goods would cost so much is if the developer was hoping to deliberately trick people who didn't understand that they cost real money. Parents need to give their iTunes passwords to kids in order for them to buy the goods, however once the password is entered the user then has 15 minutes of unlimited buying time before they have to re-enter the passcode.

"We’ve added clarifications and warnings to the game description on the App Store," Capcom said. "We’ve also updated the game with language that appears at the start of the game as well as within the Smurfberry store making it very clear that Smurfberries cost real money.  All of this language has been in place since December 10th and it’s literally the first thing one sees when a customer downloads the app or looks at the App Store description. Furthermore, customers can disable the ability to make in-app purchases by changing their device's settings."

As for whether Apple may be planning a to adjust their log-in procedures, Capcom said they had no idea whether a plan for that was in progress as they've heard nothing about it. However, this new information seems to cast some doubt on the validity of the original anonymous source.