The Federal Trade and Commission has finalized the order for Epic Games to pay $245 million for settlement claims concerning the game Fortnite. Epic allegedly “violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and deployed design tricks, known as dark patterns, to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases,” according to the FTC back last year. In December, Epic Games was ordered by the FTC to pay $275 million in settlements when violating COPPA, a total of $520 million dollars.
“In a complaint filed in federal court, the FTC alleged that Epic violated the COPPA Rule by collecting personal information from children under 13 who played Fortnite, a child-directed online service, without notifying their parents or obtaining their parent’s verifiable consent.”
According to the FTC order, “Epic automatically billed the parents’ stored payment information for the V-Bucks. Epic did not require parents to enter a PIN or password to authorize V-bucks purchases, or even allow them to enable such a control.” The order also included statements from parents commenting on how kids were able to make big purchases without their consent.
“This proposed order sends a message to all online providers that collecting children’s personal information without parental consent will not be tolerated,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
“Additionally, in a first-of-its-kind provision, Epic will be required to adopt strong privacy default settings for children and teens, ensuring that voice and text communications are turned off by default.” said the FTC.
In the complaint during the federal court, “The FTC alleges that these default settings, along with Epic’s role in matching children and teens with strangers to play Fortnite together, harmed children and teens. Children and teens have been bullied, threatened, harassed, and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues such as suicide while on Fortnite.”
Those who believe they are eligible for a refund can visit FTC.gov/Fortnite to get more information.