Epic Games, Inc.

The Federal Trade Commission announced two record-setting settlements with Epic Games in December 2022 totaling $520 million over conduct involving the company's Fortnite video game. In the first action, Epic agreed to pay a $275 million civil penalty for alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule. The FTC alleged that Epic collected personal information from children under the age of 13 who played Fortnite without first obtaining verifiable parental consent. The FTC also alleged that Epic enabled real-time voice and text communications for children and teenagers by default. According to the FTC, these default settings exposed young users to interactions with strangers and risks including bullying, threats and harassment. The $275 million penalty was described by the FTC as the largest penalty ever obtained for violation of an FTC rule at the time. In a separate administrative action, Epic agreed to pay $245 million in consumer refunds. The FTC alleged that Fortnite used interface designs described as "dark patterns" that caused consumers to make unintended purchases. According to the FTC, Fortnite used counterintuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configurations that could cause players to incur charges with a single button press. The FTC also alleged that children were able to purchase in-game content without requiring parental authorization and that Epic locked some consumers out of accounts after they disputed unauthorized charges with their credit-card companies. Together, the two FTC resolutions produced $520 million in monetary relief. The orders also required changes to Epic's privacy, communication, billing and account-management practices. Primary source: Federal Trade Commission — Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/12/fortnite-video-game-maker-epic-games-pay-more-half-billion-dollars-over-ftc-allegations