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“Statutes written decades ago don’t specify how gaming ecosystems should operate,” Epic said. Using internal testing, Epic purposefully obscured cancel and refund features to make them more difficult to find.” Epic Games did not admit guilt in its statement on the settlement. “In fact, Epic’s changes only made the problem worse, the FTC alleged. “Epic ignored more than one million user complaints and repeated employee concerns that ‘huge’ numbers of users were being wrongfully charged,” the FTC said in its report. The FTC claimed areas with purchasing options in Fortnite violated FTC consumer protection guidelines.The resolutions were both the largest-ever settlements for penalties in their respective courts by the FTC, according to the agency. The $245 million that makes up the rest of the resolution covers an allegation of the use of “dark patterns,” or a user experience design that does not make it clear a person is purchasing something, by Epic Games.
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The civil complaint, which makes up $275 million of the resolution, also said the game’s default setting enabling voice and text chat violated COPPA, as it put children at risk through those communications. The FTC alleged Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act through its collection of data from people under the age of 13 without parental supervision or consent, according to a report from the organization detailing the settlement.
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Fortnite developer Epic Games will pay $520 million to the Federal Trade Commission as part of a resolution of two complaints from the FTC.
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