Epic will pay record $520m to settle FTC allegations

videogameschronicle.com:

Fortnite maker Epic Games has agreed to pay over half a billion dollars to settle a pair of complaints brought against it by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

In two separate record-breaking settlements, the FTC said Epic will pay a $275 million penalty for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and $245 million to refund consumers tricked into making unwanted charges.

In a federal complaint, the FTC had alleged that Epic violated the COPPA by collecting the personal information of Fortnite players under the age of 13 without notifying their parents or obtaining verifiable consent from a guardian.

It also said that Epic had violated the FTC Act by enabling real-time voice and text communications for children and teens by default, resulting in some players being bullied, threatened, harassed, and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatising issues.

Epic will now be prohibited from enabling voice and text communications for children and teens unless affirmative consent is provided through a privacy setting.

In a separate complaint, the FTC alleged that Epic used “dark patterns and billing practices” to trick players of all ages into making unwanted purchases, and let children amass unauthorised charges without any parental involvement.

“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.

“For example, players could be charged while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item.”

Up until 2018, Epic also allowed children to buy Fortnite in-game currency by simply