FTC Fines Fortnite Maker $500M Over Privacy Violations and Unauthorized Charges

Updated on 2022-12-22: Epic Games settlement

The US FTC has settled with Epic Games, and the gaming company has agreed to pay a $520 million fine in two lawsuits that accused the company of (1) breaching COPPA and collecting data on small children, (2) and employing dark patterns to trick customers into making unintentional purchases. Read more: Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges

Updated on 2022-12-19

Epic Games, the developer of the Fortnite video game, has agreed to pay $520 million for privacy violations. As per FTC, Epic violated children’s privacy protections and used deceptive interfaces to trick players into making unintentional purchases. Read more: Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges

Overview: FTC Fines Fortnite Maker $500M Over Privacy Violations and Unauthorized Charges

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Fortnite maker Epic Games more than half a billion dollars over allegations that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and used dark patterns to trick users into making unwanted purchases. Epic Games has agreed to the settlement.

Note

• Fines in the half a billion dollars range are good examples to get management’s backing to make changes needed to protect customer data!
• While not the largest penalty (that was Facebook at $5 Billion in 2019), this should raise eyebrows around the C Suite to show the importance of privacy and cost of violations. Note the $500M is roughly half in penalties and half in reimbursement to affected customers.

Read more in

• Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges
• Epic FTC Settlement and moving beyond long-standing industry practices
• FTC fines Fortnite maker Epic Games $520M over children’s privacy and item shop charges
• FTC Fines Fortnite Maker Epic Games $275 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy Law