The FTC rules that Epic Games failed to comply with the COPPA law (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), a US regulation applicable to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13, and deployed design tricks known as dark patterns (“tricked interfaces” in French) to induce millions of players to make unintentional purchases. In detail, Epic Games will pay a $275 million fine to the US Treasury for violating the Children’s Privacy Act, plus $245 million in consumer refunds for inciting users to incur unwanted expenses.
Vigilant government versus negligent business
This $ 275 million fine is the heaviest ever imposed for violating a rule from the FTC, which also obtained several guarantees from Epic Games. Namely, respecting default privacy settings for children and teens and ensuring that voice and text communications are turned off by default. In its lawsuit filed in federal court, the FTC alleged that Epic Games violated COPPA by collecting personal information from children under 13 who played games. Fortnite, without informing or obtaining parental consent. Epic Games also violated a ban by allowing real-time voice and text communications for minors by default. “Children and teens have been bullied, threatened, harassed and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatic issues, such as suicide, while playing Fortnite“, and this despite repeated warnings from some employees since 2017, can we read. And while a button allowing users to disable voice chat was finally added, Epic Games made it difficult for users to find, according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, Epic Games will pay $245 million to reimburse certain consumers due to its murky billing schemes and practices, again the largest FTC reimbursement amount in a video game case as well as largest administrative order in history. For the FTC, Epic Games rolled out a variety of dark patterns aimed at encouraging consumers of all ages to make involuntary in-game purchases. In particular, the configuration “counter-intuitive, inconsistent and confusing“buttons of Fortnite which allegedly led to players incurring unwanted charges based on the press of a single button. “For example, players could be charged for trying to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or for pressing an adjacent button while simply trying to preview an item. These tactics have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges for consumers“, states the complaint.”Through internal testing, Epic deliberately hid the undo and refund features to make them harder to find“, can we also read.
honorable amends
“As our complaints point out, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and tricked-out interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teens and children. Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy breaches and deceptive interfaces is a top priority for the Commission, and these actions make it clear to companies that the FTC is cracking down on these illegal practices.“said FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan, who won the support of Vanita Gupta, Assistant U.S. Attorney General.
The FTC statement states that Fortnite has racked up 400 million users worldwide since its mode exploded battle royale in 2017. In light of these accusations, we understand in any case a little better the recent press release from Epic Games concerning the establishment of “limited accounts” intended to supervise young users in a more secure and personalized way. “Young players’ account will become a limited account and these players will be required to provide a parent or guardian’s email address to begin the parental consent process“, explained the announcement of December 7, 2022.
“No developer creates a game with the intention of getting there. We agreed to this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.“, commented the company in a long statement looking back on the privacy measures it has taken in recent years.
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