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Fortnite developer pays fine of over US$ 500 million.
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Fortnite developer Epic has agreed to pay more than half a billion dollars to settle with the Federal Trade Commission.
In two separate settlements, the FTC said Epic will pay a $1.5 million fine for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and another $1.5 million to reimburse consumers who were tricked into paying unwanted fees, the statement said.
The FTC alleged that Epic violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from Fortnite players under the age of 13 without notifying their parents or obtaining verifiable parental consent.
He also said Epic violated FTC law by enabling real-time voice and text communication for children and teens by default in the game, which resulted in some players being bullied, threatened, and harassed. Some of them suffered serious problems and psychological trauma.
Epic will now be blocked from allowing voice and text communications for children and teens in Fortnite unless parental consent is provided via the privacy setting.
In another complaint, the FTC alleged that Epic used a deceptive in-game purchasing system to trick players of all ages into making unintended purchases and allowed children to rack up unauthorized payments without any parental involvement. The FTC's statement read:
The inconsistent and confusing presence of the button in Fortnite has resulted in players incurring unwanted charges based on a single button press. For example, a payment may be accidentally made while the game is on a loading screen or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting to view an item.
In recent years, Fortnite has allowed children to purchase in-game currency by simply pressing a single button without the need for any parental action or approval.
The FTC alleged that Epic ignored more than a million user complaints about players being charged unfairly.
After this exorbitant fine, we hope that Epic will make extensive updates to the game's purchasing system to avoid falling into other similar situations that could cost billions of dollars.
