The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Epic Games on Monday, Dec. 19, alleging the firm of several illegal practices.
Epic Games has settled FTC allegations of antitrust violations by paying a record $520 million in penalties and refunds.
Epic Games creator of the video game Fortnite, to pay a total of $520 million over FTC allegations Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and deployed dark patterns to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases: https://t.co/yHaQx8VXlu
— FTC (@FTC) December 19, 2022
Epic Games vs. FTC
CNN reported that Epic Games is charged with violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The tech firm reportedly collected the personal information of children under the age of 13 without acquiring their parents' verified permission.
An administrative complaint was submitted to the FTC alleging that Epic Games also made misleading design choices.
Apparently, over a million parents have complained to its support team about unauthorized charges after their children made in-game purchases with a single click or button press without their knowledge or consent.
Claims say Epic Games made it harder for users to cancel in-game transactions by burying the option at the bottom of the screen and requiring them to press a button on their controllers.
The video game company also had parents "jump through hoops" to have their children's data removed and occasionally failed to respect deletion requests, the agency claimed in a court lawsuit.
In The New York Times article, FTC chairwoman Lina Khan said that protecting the public, particularly minors, from internet privacy violations and dark patterns is a primary concern for the commission. And therefore, the agency's recent action shows tech firms that it is clamping down on illegal behavior.
Epic Games responded that it has introduced several children's privacy and buying precautions over the years and the practices cited in the FTC's allegations are "not how Fortnite operates."
Nevertheless, the video game company plans to pay for these claims.
Proposed Agreements
The company's proposed FTC settlements include record sums and unique legal remedies.
Epic Games promised to pay $275 million to resolve regulators' charges that it violated the COPPA by collecting personal data from minor Fortnite gamers without a parent's permission. It will also reimburse $245 million to people allegedly victimized by the fraudulent interface design.
Based on FTC's ruling, it requires Epic Games to get parental consent before allowing voice and text chat for minors.
In addition, it will be demanded to destroy any personally identifiable information it has gathered from Fortnite users "unless the company obtains parental consent to retain such data or the user identifies as 13 or older through a neutral age gate."
Prior Solutions
According to an article by The Verge, some of these issues claimed against Epic Games have already been fixed by the firm.
This month, Epic Games released "Cabined Accounts" for children under the age of 13. These gamers in Fortnite, Rocket League, and Fall Guys have restricted access to services like in-game purchases, voice chat, and text messaging without parental approval.
The gaming company also provided free parent verification services to all developers on the platform in 2019 and added parental controls this year.
