The Federal Trade Commission accused the company of illegally gathering data from children and manipulating users into making unwanted in-game purchases. Up until now, the FTC had largely failed to deliver on its promise of more robust reinforcement of U.S. tech companies.
The first $275 million fine will be paid to resolve allegations that Epic collected personal information from children under the age of 13 without their parents' consent. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act is the subject of a complaint by the FTC. According to the FTC, internal surveys show that at least some of the player base was under the age of 18. Parents were forced to wade through cumbersome barriers when they requested to have their children's data deleted.
Live voice and text communication can be turned on by default. Children were linked up with teens and strangers online, who in some cases were exposed to harassment and suicide. Employees at the company were concerned about harms stemming from the default privacy setting. Despite those concerns, the company refused calls to make opt-in calls.
No developer creates a game to end up here, according to the statement. Player expectations are high and new ideas are important in the video game industry. Statutes written decades ago don't specify how gaming ecosystems should work.
We decided to accept this agreement because we want to give our players the best experience possible.
The child privacy violations were not the only problem. The game-maker agreed to pay $245 million to refunds customers who were victims of unfair billing practices. A single press of a button resulted in unwanted charges being incurred by players. The FTC claims that single press button meant users were charged while sitting in a loading screen or trying to wake the game from sleep mode. The users collectively lost hundreds of millions of dollars to those practices. It was suggested that a high number of users were being wrongly charged by the company. Customers who lost money will be able to get their money back.
"All game developers should rethink steps they've taken to simplify payment flows in favor of practices that provide the most clarity to players when they make purchase decisions." If you save payment information by default, you won't have to re-enter your payment method every time you make a purchase. We now offer an explicit yes or no option to save payment information after agreeing with the FTC to change this practice.
In a statement, the FTC chair said she wanted the fines to show the agency's intent to pursue violations.
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