The US Federal Trade Commission has hit Fortnite maker Epic Games with a record-breaking penalty of $520m (£427m) over allegations it previously employed “lax privacy practices” for voice and text chat, and used design tricks to “dupe millions of players” into unintentional purchases.
The eye-opening judgment includes the largest-ever settlement obtained by the FTC regarding the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, as Fortnite allowed in-game chat and user data collection by default.
Fortnite holds a “Teen” rating by the US ratings board ESRB, but the FTC has argued Epic Games knew many of its users were likely under 13 years of age and had not obtained their parents’ consent.
The remainder of the fine relates to a separate decision by the FTC that Fortnite included “illegal dark patterns” to “trick players into making unwanted purchases and let children rack up unauthorised charges without any parental involvement”.
The FTC claims Fortnite applied “counterintuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configuration” design which let users purchase things accidentally. Pre-2018, it was too easy for children to purchase in-game currency without parental consent, the FTC continued. Another point of criticism was that Epic Games had locked the accounts of customers who used their credit cards to subsequently charge back purchases – some of which were in the thousands of dollars.