Starting today, Epic Games is now prohibited from enabling voice and text communications for children and teens unless affirmative consent is provided through a privacy setting. In a separate complaintthe FTC also accused Epic of using “obscure patterns and billing practicesto entice gamers of all ages into making unwanted purchases and letting children rack up unauthorized charges without parental involvement. “Fortnite’s counter-intuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button layout has resulted in players incurring unwanted charges by pressing a single button”said the FTC, adding that “players could be charged for trying to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or pressing an adjacent button while simply trying to preview an item.” Almost villainous methods that have obviously evolved over the years and updates, until 2018, where Epic Games also allowed children to buy in-game currency (the famous V-Bucks) by simply pressing buttons without requiring any parental or cardholder action or consent.
But that’s not all, in its document, the FTC states that Epic Games also ignored more than a million user complaints about non-consented payments. Worse still, it is stated that Epic Games had locked the accounts of players who disputed unauthorized charges with their credit card companies, meaning they did not have access to any content they had purchased. In the future, the US publisher is prohibited from doing so. “As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that misled Fortnite users, including teens and children”said Lina Khan, the President of the FTC, before adding that “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy breaches and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make it clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these illegal practices.” In a message posted on its official blog, Epic Games responded by declaring its good faith and not to further tarnish this bad image:
No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here… 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. Over the past few years, we have made changes to ensure that our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a useful guide for others in our industry. We’ll continue to be upfront about what players can expect when making purchases, make sure cancellations and refunds are simple, and have safeguards in place that help keep our ecosystem safe and fun. for audiences of all ages.
Inevitably, faced with such accusations, Epic Games was forced to turn its back…
