The company will be forced to pay two fines at once, one of which will go directly to the victims
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports that Epic Games has agreed to pay $520 million to settle two civil lawsuits at once.
The first lawsuit alleges that the company violated the privacy of children by collecting personal information from players under the age of 13 without notifying their parents or obtaining their consent. Children have also witnessed inappropriate chat messages, and due to the default voice chat, they have often been victims of bullying, ridicule and harassment. Epic Games will pay $275 million in this lawsuit. The amount is unprecedented for the Federal Trade Commission in claims for violation of privacy law.
In the second lawsuit, the company will pay 245 million for the use of various design tricks. Epic Games deliberately used confusing and non-intuitive controls that caused many users to make random purchases, and deliberately hid the cancel purchase options deep in the menu to make them harder to find. The accounts of users who canceled purchases through banks were completely blocked by the company.
The FTC also accused Epic Games of using so-called “dark patterns” to encourage users to make purchases they don’t really need.
245 million in the second lawsuit will be distributed among the victims.