The Federal Trade Commission claimed that the developer broke online privacy laws for kids and tricked players into buying in-game items. The settlement includes a record $275 million penalty to settle alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) and $245 million over a purchasing setup that could trick players.
During its first two years, the game made $9 billion.
The FTC alleges that Unreal collected personal information from players under the age of 13 without their permission. Children and teens have been bullied, threatened, harassed, and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues such as suicide, because of the switch on text and voice chat in games by default.
Some of the concerns have been addressed by the company. The new "Cabined Accounts" for kids under the age of 13 were rolled out earlier this month, disabling certain features, such as text and voice chat, in-game purchases, and the ability to download games that aren't made by the company. Last year, it made parent verification services free for all developers on the platform.
As part of the FTC's proposed court order, Epic will need to get parents' permission before they can allow voice and text chat for kids. Unless the company obtains parental consent to retain such data or the user identifies as 13 or older through a neutral age gate, the data will have to be deleted.
The company is paying $245 million to reimburse customers for the use of dark patterns that tricked players into making unwanted purchases and let children rack up unauthorized charges. A dark pattern is a user interface designed to trick users into selecting something that isn't in their interests.
The FTC claims that players made hundreds of million of dollars in in-game purchases based on the press of a single button.
Users could be charged if they pressed an adjacent button while trying to preview an item or if they woke the game from sleep.
The FTC accuses the game developer of charging account holders without their permission. Children were allowed to purchase in-game currency, V-bucks, without the permission of their parents or credit card holders. Customers who tried to dispute unauthorized charges were locked out of their accounts and threatened with a lifetime ban if they tried to fight future charges, according to the report.
The FTC will use the settlement to refunds parents whose children made unauthorized credit card purchases, players who were charged for unwanted purchases, and players whose accounts were locked after charges.
The FTC plans to make refunds available to:
Parents whose children made an unauthorized credit card purchase in the Epic Games Store between January 2017 and November 2018
Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency (V-Bucks) for unwanted in-game items (such as cosmetics, llamas, or battle passes) between January 2017 and September 2022
Fortnite players whose accounts were locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after disputing unauthorized charges with their credit card companies.
The default settings of the game were used to trick users.
In a post on its website, the company said it accepted the agreement because it wanted to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for players.
The developer has made a number of changes to the game in the last year. It did away with single-press purchases and requires players to hold down the button to make a purchase.
The chair of the FTC says that the company used deceptive interface and privacy-invasive default settings to trick users. The protection of the public from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these practices.
The previous version of the article said that the FTC would use the settlement to distribute refunds. We apologize for the mistake.
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