Epic Games will pay $520 million to the FTC over allegations the company violated children's privacy and tricked players into unintended purchases.
The creators of Fortnite will pay record-breaking penalties to the Federal Trade Commission, who confirmed the total fine amounts via a statement on its website. The federal agency announced that Epic will pay a $275 million monetary penalty for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), in addition to a separate $245 million penalty, which will be used to refund players who made unwanted or unauthorised purchases, including purchases by children without any parental involvement.
Epic will also be required to adopt strong default privacy settings for children and teens in Fortnite, with voice and text communications to be turned off by default. If you're looking for some additional context for how these fines came about, we've summarised both complaints below.
