Fortnite developer fined millions for 'tricking users' into microtransactions

Fortnite developer Epic Games has been fined a $520 million penalty after complaints were made against them by the US Federal Trade Commission, alleging that they’d tricked “millions of players into making unintentional purchases”.

It’s a universal truth that we all hate microtransactions, and yet they appear to be everywhere. This year’s Diablo Immortal is proof that microtransactions will not hinder the success of the game. In the first two weeks of release alone, Diablo Immortal raked in a whopping $24 million - despite the fact that it was banned for the inclusion of loot boxes in countries like Belgium and The Netherlands.

Fortnite’s microtransactions were recently challenged by the US Federal Trade Commission and with great success. As reported by GamesRadar, the FTC alleged that children’s privacy laws had been violated, adding that “dark patterns” had been used to trick users into making purchases. Epic Games must pay a $275 million penalty as a result of breaking the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which marks the largest penalty ever given for violating the rule.

The FTC noted that Epic “collected personal data from children without first obtaining parents’ verifiable consent.” It added that Fornite’s voice chat “harmed children and teens,” exposing them to bullying, harassment and sexual advances. The complaint read, “Children and teens have also been exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatising issues, such as suicide and self-harm, through Fornite.”

The remaining $245 million of the penalty is to be paid in direct refunds to customers, making it “the FTC’s largest refund amount in a gaming case, and its largest administrative order in history.” The refund relates to Fortnite’s “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing” UI which the FTC believes encourages users to “incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button.”

They detailed, “Players could be charged while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item,” adding that this led to unauthorised charges. Epic has recently implemented a hold-to-purchase mechanic to prevent further issues.