Fortnite players may soon receive more than $72 million in refunds after the Federal Trade Commission discovered the video game’s maker, Epic Games, had “tricked” customers into unwanted purchases.
As part of a settlement first announced in December 2022, the FTC announced Monday that Epic Games would pay $245 million to resolve allegations that they used design tricks known as dark patterns to wrongfully dupe millions of players into racking up in-game charges.
The FTC has required Epic Games to start sending payments to more than 629,000 customers, with additional payouts at a later date. The settlement is the FTC’s largest ever refund amount in any gaming case, according to the agency.
Here’s what you need to know about the Epic Games accusations, the refund amount and how to apply for it:
Epic Games billed players for nearly every feature in the online game.
The game developer used dark patterns to “trick” players into making unwanted purchases, enabling children to incur unauthorized charges without parental consent and preventing customers from reviewing their purchases after disputing the illegal charges, according to the FTC.
Additionally, the FTC asserted in a news release that Fortnite’s “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players of all ages to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button. For example, players could be charged while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item.”
“As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a December 2022 news release when the company announced the settlement. “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”
How much will customers receive in the refund?
The average payment is about $114, the FTC said. Customers selected their payment method when they filled out their claim form; recipients should redeem their PayPal payment within 30 days and cash their checks within 90 days.
