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"Fortnite" online shop: players can buy virtual hot dog costumes there, for example
Photo: Epic Games
The American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the "Fortnite" manufacturer Epic Games have reached an agreement in their dispute over issues such as youth protection and questionable design practices.
Accordingly, Epic Games is ready to pay more than half a billion dollars to settle the conflict in the face of several allegations by the US trade regulator.
A court has yet to confirm that.
Epic Games has accepted a $275 million fine for violating child privacy regulations online.
Meanwhile, 245 million dollars are to be repaid to users who had made purchases in the "Fortnite" online shop, where, according to the FTC, design tricks were used that led to unwanted purchases.
In technical jargon, such tricks are called dark patterns.
»Fortnite« is a so-called free-to-play game.
It is free to play, but players have the option to unlock virtual costumes and items using digital currency that can be purchased for real money.
Epic Games has "put children and young people at risk" through "lax privacy practices" and illegally cost consumers millions of dollars through the use of dark patterns, said Samuel Levine, the FTC's consumer protection officer.
Specifically, the federal agency accuses Epic Games of having collected personal data from gamers under the age of 13 without notifying their parents or obtaining verifiable parental consent.
Epic Games knew that many children also played the game, which can be seen, for example, in the licensing and marketing of "Fortnite" toys.
At the same time, it was made difficult for parents to request the deletion of their children's data.
In addition, according to the FTC, Epic Games violated the ban on allowing real-time voice and text chat communications for children and young people by default.
Children and young people were bullied, threatened, harassed and exposed to dangerous and psychologically traumatizing topics while playing "Fortnite".
One-touch shopping
With regard to the dark patterns in the "Fortnite" store, it is said that a "counter-intuitive, inconsistent and confusing button configuration" sometimes caused players to incur unwanted costs by pressing a single button.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars" were thus unwittingly spent.
The purchase of the digital currency for the game, the so-called V-Bucks, is said to have been made too easy for children until 2018.
At that time, purchases were possible “by simply pressing buttons, without any action or consent from the parents or the cardholder being required”, it says.
At its core, it is probably about secret purchases via accounts from parents whose payment data Epic had saved.
Another criticism leveled by the FTC is that Epic Games allegedly suspended customers' accounts after they disputed unauthorized bills with their credit card companies.
With this blocking, access to all content ever purchased was lost, according to the trade regulator.
She also accuses the game manufacturer of intentionally making the cancellation and refund functions difficult to find using internal tests.
Epic Games says so
Epic Games itself said in its statement on the agreement with the FTC that the video game industry is a place of fast-moving innovation.
Laws written decades ago would not have defined how the gaming industry ecosystems should function.
"The laws have not changed, but their application has evolved and longstanding industry practices are no longer sufficient," writes Epic Games.
"We entered into this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection."
All video game developers, the company writes, "should reconsider the steps they've taken to simplify cash flows and adopt practices that offer players the utmost clarity in their purchasing decisions." Along with its justifications lists The company still lists various measures that it has taken in recent years to protect minors and the "Fortnite" shop system.
In-game purchases have been able to be undone since 2018, emphasizes Epic Games, for example, and also refers to a recently introduced new system called "Hold to purchase".
In practical terms, "Hold to purchase" means that a quick tap on a button is no longer enough to trigger a purchase in the shop.
Instead, the button must now be pressed continuously for a short period of time.
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