Three months after the initial announcement of the FTC case, the amount has been settled.
As a result of employing “dark patterns” to deceive players into making inadvertent purchases and allowing youngsters to do so without parental supervision, a court has ordered Epic Games to pay $245 million to Fortnite players.
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has confirmed that the penalty amount stated in December, following the initial notice of the complaint, has been finalized.
The FTC claimed that Epic utilized deceptive design practices to lure gamers of all ages into making accidental transactions within the game.
The FTC press release reads-
“Fortnite’s counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button.”
“The company also made it easy for children to make purchases while playing Fortnite without requiring any parental consent.”
Those who questioned the unauthorized charges with their credit card issuers had their accounts closed, according to the FTC’s allegations.
The FTC has now disclosed that Epic must pay $245 million to make things right, with the money going toward refunding affected players.
“The order also prohibits Epic from charging consumers through the use of dark patterns or from otherwise charging consumers without obtaining their affirmative consent.”
“Additionally, the order bars Epic from blocking consumers from accessing their accounts for disputing unauthorised charges.”
Meanwhile, the FTC is still hearing “alarm” from Google and Nvidia on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
