The creators of Fortnite reached an agreement with the entity responsible for consumer rights in the United States .
A video game giant under sight. The Federal Trade Commission of the United States ( FTC for its acronym in English) has agreed to fines that exceed 500 million dollars with Epic Games .
The FTC has taken action against the creators of Fortnite for privacy offenses and unwanted charges.
Epic Games, Fortnite and unprotected children
The first $275 million fine was for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), making it the largest penalty imposed under the law.
The FTC explains that Epic Games was aware of children playing Fortnite , collecting their data without first obtaining verifiable parental consent. Also, the company put obstacles in the way of parents seeking to have their children’s information deleted, even sometimes ignoring these requests.
In addition, the FTC ensures that children and adolescents have been victims of bullying, threatened, harassed and exposed to traumatic situations such as suicides because Fortnite had open communication in real time (text and audio) with strangers
This prompted the requirement that Epic Games adopt more robust default options for children and teens, ensuring that voice and text communications are turned off by default.
In the second fine of 245 million dollars, Epic recognizes incorrect practices when charging its customers.
The FTC indicates that Epic deployed deceptive practices even in the Fortnite interface , encouraging users to make unintended purchases. In some cases, players even made purchases when Fortnite was loading or when looking to preview an item.
“Epic put children and teens at risk through its lax privacy practices and cost consumers millions of dollars in illegal fees through illegal practices,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Epic Office of Consumer Protection. FTC .