Epic Games is being forced to pay Fortnite players $245 million USD after a ruling from the Federal Trade Commission said the Fortnite developer had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Are you entitled to any of it?
Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world and has become a massive source of revenue for developer Epic Games. With oodles of pop culture tie-ins and collaborations, Fortnite has become a media juggernaut. However, that ascension hasn’t been without significant hiccups, a few of which the FTC has latched onto as infractions of COPPA legislation. Epic stands accused of using “dark practices” to manipulate players’ purchasing habits. Over $245 million USD is being set aside to pay off those affected by Epic Games’ poor behavior, and it’s possible you’re entitled to some of it. Here’s who qualifies as being affected by the COPPA violations in Fortnite.
Some customers of Epic Games and Fortnite are owed money by the video game’s developer, the FTC ruled previously. Now Epic Games is being forced to put up the cash to reimburse players affected by either of its two FTC violations. The first transgression, according to the FTC, was failure to comply with COPPA by having automatically enabled voice and text chat in a game largely played by minors. The second complaint was Epic Games’ use of dark patterns, intentionally obfuscated or difficult interactions, to get players to buy more items and refund less.
There are three main groups of eligible people who will likely be getting money back from Epic Games as a part of this FTC judgment.
The first group is any players who disputed unauthorized charges from Fortnite with a credit holder and had their accounts locked because of this. Secondly, players who were charged for items they didn’t mean to purchase between January 2017 and September 2022. Finally, any players whose children or dependents made unauthorized purchases on Fortnite between January 2017 and November 2018.
The Federal Trade Commission was clear in its statements on Epic Games’ violations that Fortnite’s dark patterns had led to hundreds of millions of dollars of unintentional purchases. The total penalty against Epic Games for the FTC’s grievances with its actions was well over $520 million USD. $245 million of that is to be refunded to qualifying Fortnite players affected by the developer’s dark practices. The Fortnite FTC ruling represents the largest federal penalty in the industry’s history.
The remainder of the penalty will go to addressing the rest of the FTC’s issues with Epic Games’ behavior. There’s no way to get the money at the moment, but the FTC has said it will publish updates to its website. For more information on the FTC ruling, check out our article on the huge fine.
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