Epic Games pays €491 million in settlement to US market watchdog FTC. Among other things, the company would have made it all too easy for minors to make in-game purchases in Fortnite.
The FTC says that Epic Games so called dark models has lined up to get underage players to spend money on in-game microtransactions. Such tactics would consist of “counter-intuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configurations” that “lead players to incur unwanted costs.” “For example, players have been blamed while trying to wake the game from sleep, during a loading screen, or for pressing a nearby button when they just wanted to preview an item.” These tactics reportedly resulted in “hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted transactions,” according to the FTC.
Additionally, the FTC charges Epic that as of 2018, there was no verification whereby, for example, the credit card holder had to authorize a transaction. Epic would also be aggressive with blocking accounts when an unwanted transaction is withdrawn.
The other complaint the FTC has about Fortnite is about enabling voice chat by default. This would have led underage players to confront “bullying, threatening, harassing behavior, including of a sexual nature” through the vocal function during the game. Employees would have raised the alarm internally as early as 2017 about what minors are exposed to due to the default settings, but Epic would only later add a button that disables voice chat and 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 schemes.
