The company also recently rolled out a more limited version of “Fortnite” for younger players that allows them to access some features while awaiting parental consent but that restricts chat and purchases. In its blog post, Epic said it has agreed with the FTC to implement a feature that explicitly asks Fortnite users whether to save their payment information for future use. The agreement will last for 20 years from the time it is adopted. Those design choices were allegedly implemented after surveys showed that, when the cancel button was more prominently displayed, accidental charges were the “number one ‘reason’” users clicked on the button, the FTC said.Įpic’s agreement with the FTC, which is not yet final, prohibits the company from using dark patterns or charging consumers without their consent, and also forbids Epic from locking players out of their accounts in response to users’ chargeback requests with credit card companies disputing unwanted charges. The FTC further alleged that Epic made it more difficult to cancel purchases of in-game items by burying the option at the bottom of the screen and by requiring consumers to push and hold a button on their controllers to complete the cancellation. The complaint claims Epic made it extremely easy for children to purchase in-game items with a single click or button press without parental approval, resulting in more than one million parental complaints to Epic about unwanted charges. The allegations of Epic’s deceptive design choices were filed as an FTC administrative complaint. In addition to the alleged illegal collection of children’s data, the FTC also claimed that Epic’s default settings for matchmaking and in-game communications exposed children to bullying and harassment. The FTC’s complaint and proposed settlement dealing with children’s privacy was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices,” Khan said in a statement. “We accepted this agreement because we want Epic to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.”įTC Chair Lina Khan said the settlement reflects the agency’s heightened focus on privacy and so-called “dark patterns,” a term used to describe design elements intended to nudge users toward a company’s preferred result. “No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here,” Epic said in the blog post.

In a blog post addressing the twin settlements, Epic said the agreement reflects an evolution in how US laws are applied to the video gaming industry. That agreement is the largest administrative order in FTC history, the FTC added. In a second and separate settlement, Epic will pay $245 million as refunds to consumers who were allegedly harmed by user-interface design choices the FTC claimed were deceptive.

How companies subtly trick users online with 'dark patterns'

Epic kids game