Epic Games, the Fortnite Battle Royale creator, agreed to pay $245 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations regarding in-game purchases. Due to this, many Fortnite players are eligible for a refund.
This is part of a bigger lawsuit that will make Epic pay more than half a billion dollars in total. This is the biggest FTC fine to date and the video game developer will be forced to also make certain changes to Fortnite due to it.
This article will reveal everything you need to know about the latest lawsuit and how much money you can get from it.
Fortnite players will receive refunds from Epic Games
According to the FTC, Epic Games “violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and deployed design tricks, known as dark patterns, to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases.”
Due to the violation, the Fortnite Battle Royale developer will pay a $275 million penalty. In addition, Epic Games will pay $245 million to refund consumers for its dark patterns and billing practices.
The FTC claims that Epic charged parents and gamers of all ages for unwanted cosmetic items. Furthermore, the Fortnite developer has locked out several players out of their accounts when they disputed wrongful charges.
In total, $245 million will be distributed among players. However, many players wonder how much money exactly they will receive.
To determine this, we first have to look at the players who are eligible for refunds. According to the FTC, not everyone is eligible, which means that fewer than 400 million players will receive a refund.
Here is who is eligible for it:
- Parents whose children made an unauthorized credit card purchase in the Epic Games Store between January 2017 and November 2018
- Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency (V-Bucks) for unwanted in-game items (such as cosmetics, llamas, or battle passes) between January 2017 and September 2022
- Fortnite players whose accounts were locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after disputing unauthorized charges with their credit card companies.
If you are eligible for a payment, there isn’t anything you should do. The FTC still needs to investigate this issue and will eventually send money to all eligible players.
In the meantime, the commission advises Fortnite players to visit www.ftc.gov/fortnite and check it frequently for updates.
Considering that the lawsuit includes a period of more than five years, it is very unlikely that Fortnite players will receive a lot of money. Even if the lawsuit only affects 50 million players, that’s less than $5 per player.
Due to this, there is a good chance that Epic Games will simply send V-Bucks to all eligible players. This has been the case before, so it won’t be surprising if it happens once again.
