Someone thought of the children, and the dark patterns
The owner of Fortnite is paying the FTC an Epic amount of cash after a pair of unanimous 4-0 decisions found it guilty of violating children’s privacy and tricking customers into making unwanted purchases.
Under the settlements, Epic Games will pay $275 million to the FTC for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and $245 million that will go toward refunding customers fooled by “dark patterns” in the Fortnite app.
According to the FTC, both settlements are record breakers: The COPPA penalty is “the largest penalty ever obtained for violating an FTC rule,” while the dark pattern payout “is the FTC’s largest refund amount in a gaming case, and its largest administrative order in history.”
“As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children … these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan.
The FTC alleged that Epic Games violated COPPA by collecting the personal information of gamers under the age of 13 without obtaining their parents’ consent.
