Now that the Fortnite case is over, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun refunding some money to affected players.

Gamesindustry has reported that the FTC will initially refund 629344 players who unknowingly purchased perks, emotes, and other in-game items in Epic Games’ hit battle royale game. Half of them will receive money via PayPal and half will receive a check from the FTC. The rest will be paid at a later date. The average payout will be $114 per player.

Epic Games and the FTC reached this agreement two years ago, in December 2022. At the time, the company was fined by the commission for using dark pattern tactics to induce players to buy virtual currency against their will. The company was fined $245 million, all of which the FTC will use for restitution. This is the amount from which the Commission has begun to make restitution.

But this isn’t the first time the FTC has fined Epic Games, as the company known for Fortnite and Unreal Engine was fined under COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) for collecting data from children under 13 playing the popular battle royale game without verifiable parental consent, and for forcing parents to jump through hoops to delete their children’s data. This violation cost Epic Games $275 million, bringing the total fine to $520 million.

So Epic Games was really screwed, because it’s true that Sweeney’s company wants to build a metaverse (Lego Fortnite is proof of that, or the fact that Fortnite got a Counter-Strike-like game mode, the latter of which we’ve already reported on in the news), but it shouldn’t be done by tricking the public into paying for it.

Now the only question is: how will Epic Games learn its lesson from all of this?

Source: Gamesindustry