Epic has to pay a fine of 491 million euros for child-unfriendly design Fortnite

Epic Games pays a settlement of 491 million euros to the American market watchdog FTC. Among other things, the company would have made it too easy for minors to make in-game purchases in Fortnite.

The FTC states that Epic Games has used so-called dark patterns to get underage players to spend money on microtransactions in the game. Those tactics would consist of “counterintuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configurations” that “lead players to incur unwanted costs.” “For example, players were charged while trying to wake the game from sleep, during a loading screen, or for pressing a neighboring button when they just wanted to preview an item.” These tactics would have led to “hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted transactions,” according to the FTC.

In addition, the FTC charges Epic that until 2018 there was no verification with which, for example, the credit card holder had to give permission per transaction. Epic would also be aggressive with blocking accounts when an unintended transaction is withdrawn.

The other complaint the FTC has about Fortnite is about enabling voice chat by default. This would have caused underage players to be confronted with ‘bullying behaviour, threats, harassment, including of a sexual nature’ via the voice function during gameplay. Employees would have raised the alarm internally as early as 2017 about what minors are exposed to because of the default settings, but Epic would only later add a button that disables voice chat and it would also be hard to find. Epic needs to adjust the default settings.

The amount is divided into two parts. Epic must pay a $275 million fine and $245 million in refunds to consumers affected by the game’s dark patterns.