Fortnite players and other Epic Games customers who were tricked by the game maker into making unwanted purchases may receive refunds from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
As part of a settlement first announced in December 2022, the FTC ordered the video game maker to pay $245 million to resolve allegations that it used unlawful billing practices involving design tricks. known as dark patterns to avoid inadvertently charging players. It is the largest refund amount ever in a gaming case, the agency said.
The FTC says it will send out more than 629,000 payments on Monday, with more payments due at a later date. About half of the first tranche of payments will be made via PayPal, and the other half will consist of checks. Collectively, customers will receive $72 million in refunds, according to the agency.
How much money does each customer get?
The average payment is about $114, the FTC said. Epic Games customers entitled to a refund selected their payment method when submitting a claim form. Customers who choose to receive PayPal payments have 30 days to refund the money, while check recipients have 90 days to cash the money.
What has Epic Games done?
The FTC alleges that the Fortnite maker used dark patterns along with a variety of other tactics to trick customers into making unwanted purchases.
For example, a “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration” made it easy for Fortnite players to incur unwanted charges with the press of a single button, the FTC said. Additionally, trying to transition the game from sleep to wake mode often led to unwanted purchases. Other times, pressing an “adjacent button” while trying to preview an item resulted in a charge.
“As our complaints show, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that misled Fortnite users, including teens and children,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in December 2022, when the settlement was first announced. “Protecting the public, especially children, from online privacy breaches and shady patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions signal to companies that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”
