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BREAKING

FTC Finalizes Order Forcing Fortnite’s Epic Games to pay $245M for Tricking Users into Unwanted Charges

After a 4-0 vote, the FTC has just finalized an order that will require Epic Games (makers of Fortnite) to pay $245 million to consumers in order to settle charges that the company uses intentionally obscuring patterns to trick players into making unwanted charges.

They have also been accused of letting children rack up unauthorized charges without any parental involvement or consent.

As part of the settlement package announced in December, the FTC said that Epic used a variety of design tricks known as “dark patterns” to get consumers of all ages to make unintended in-game purchases.

Fortnite used counterintuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configurations to get players to incur the charges based on the press of a single button. And they made it easy for kids to make purchases while playing without getting parental consent.

Epic is accused of locking the accounts of customers who disputed charges with their credit card companies.

Epic will now pay $245M, most of which will be used to provide refunds to consumers. The company will also be prohibited from blocking consumers from accessing their accounts for disputing charges.



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