Epic ordered to pay $245m to consumers over ‘unwanted’ Fornite purchases
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized its order requiring Epic Games to pay $245 million back to consumers over “unwanted” purchases.
The payment is to settle charges that the company “used dark patterns to trick players into making unwanted purchases” and let children rack up unauthorized charges without any parental involvement.
The complaint, which was raised in December as part of a settlement with Epic, alleged that Fortnite developer”deployed a variety of design tricks known as dark patterns aimed at getting consumers of all ages to make unintended in-game purchases.”
This included players incurring unwanted charges “based on the press of a single button”, for example, by attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting to preview an item.
Fortnite, the monolithic battle royal game that was originally released in 2017, allows players to buy skins and other in-game items using real money. The money, which is spent on the in-game currency known as V-bucks, can’t be transferred out of the game, and in-game items hold no monetary value once purchased.
Items are often released on the Fortnite store for a limited time, and once they leave the store, they can no longer be purchased, except in some cases when items are added back to the store for a limited time. However, this is far from the case with every item.
“Fortnite’s counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button,” reads a press release from the FTC.
“The company also made it easy for children to make purchases while playing Fortnite without requiring any parental consent. According to
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