Fortnite creator to pay $520 million after 'tricking' players into purchases
The makers of Fortnite has been forced to pay $520 million (approximately £428 million pounds) to settle complaints over children’s privacy and payment methods that tricked players into unintended purchases.
Epic Games Inc., will pay $245 million (£201 million) in customer refunds, and a $275 million (£226 million) fine for collating personal information on players under the age of 13 without parental consent.
It is the biggest penalty ever imposed for breaking Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations.
“Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” the agencies chairwoman Lina Khan said.
The customer refunds will go to players of the popular video game who fell victim to so-called “dark patterns" and billing practices.
Dark patterns are deceptive online techniques used to nudge users into doing things they didn’t intend to do.
In this case, “Fortnite’s counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button," the FTC said.
Players could, for example, be charged while trying to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing a nearby button when simply trying to preview an item, it said.
“These tactics led to hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorised charges for consumers," the FTC said.
Even before the settlement was announced, Epic said in a statement it had already rolled out changes “to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry".
The company, based in Cary, North Carolina, also said that it no longer engages in the practices flagged by the FTC.
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Epic said it agreed to the FTC settlement because it wants “to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.”
It added: “No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here.”
During the past two years, Epic also has been locked in a high-profile legal battle with Apple in an attempt to dismantle the barriers protecting the iPhone app store, which has emerged as one of the world’s biggest e-commerce hubs during the past 14 years.
After Epic introduced a different payment system within its Fortnite app in August 2020, Apple ousted the video from the app store, triggering a lawsuit that went to trial last year.
A federal judge ruled largely in Apple's favour, partly because she embraced the iPhone maker's contention that its exclusive control of the app store helped protect the security and privacy of consumers.
The ruling is currently under appeal, with a decision expected at some point next year.
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