‘Fortnite’ Maker Fined by FTC for Accusations Surrounding Child Privacy

Fortnite maker, Epic Games, will settle fines totaling $520 million with The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve claims of child privacy violations and trickery.

The global sensation video game, Fortnite, has amassed more than 400 million players around the world since its release in 2017, according to BBC. The game includes in-app purchases, which has led to accusations of deceptive billing practices. 

BBC reported, “the FTC cited a “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration” that led to hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized purchases.” Additionally, it said the game maker “resisted changing its design to add a separate confirmation step, worried that doing so “would add ‘friction’, ‘result in a decent number of people second guessing their purchase’ and reduce the number of ‘impulse purchases.'”

$245 million of the total fines will be used for refunds for customers who were “tricked” into making purchases.

The FTC also accused Epic Games of collecting child and teen data without parental consent as well as exposing them to harmful situations including bullying and harassment by having voice and text communications on by a default setting. 

Epic Games has agreed to pay $275 million, change its privacy settings for children and teens and have the chat communication setting turned off by default. 

The company stated, “no developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here,” but has agreed to settle the claims “to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players,” per BBC.