“Fortnite” maker Epic Games will pay $520 million in fines to settle allegations that it illegally collected personal information from children and tricked people into making purchases. This was reported by the Reuters news agency on Monday.
According to the report the company has to pay a record $275 million fine for violating a child privacy law and imposing strict default privacy settings for young people. Epic Games will also pay $245 million in compensation to consumers who were lured into making purchases they didn’t intend to make using so-called “dark patterns,” according to the independent U.S. regulator, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
“Epic used privacy-invasive defaults and deceptive interfaces to deceive Fortnite users, including teens and children,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
FTC takes action, Epic Games reacts
The regulator had recently taken on a more vigorous role in overseeing the gaming industry. Earlier this month, the FTC filed suit against Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal could damage competition, so the reason for the step. So now the fine for Epic Games.
In a statement on Monday, the company assured that it has eliminated pay-to-win and pay-to-progress mechanics when two players compete against each other. Loot boxes with random items were already abolished in 2019. Epic also stated that it will introduce an explicit yes/no choice for storing payment information. Players could request credit card refunds. “If a cardholder sees an unauthorized transaction on their bank statement, they can report it to their bank for reversal,” the company said.
To protect children, Epic says it has introduced features like easier-to-access parental controls, a PIN requirement that allows parents to authorize purchases, and “restricted accounts” for children under 13. You can now create child accounts in the Epic Games Store. With them you can only play certain titles – and spend no money.
(akn)