Epic Games to pay $520M to settle FTC allegations

The Federal Trade Commission has secured agreements requiring Epic Games, Inc., creator of the popular video game Fortnite, to pay a total of $520M in relief over allegations the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and deployed design tricks, known as dark patterns, to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases. The FTC’s action against Epic involves two separate record-breaking settlements. As part of a proposed federal court order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Epic will pay a $275M monetary penalty for violating the COPPA Rule-the largest penalty ever obtained for violating an FTC rule. Additionally, in a first-of-its-kind provision, Epic will be required to adopt strong privacy default settings for children and teens, ensuring that voice and text communications are turned off by default. Under a separate proposed administrative order, Epic will pay $245M to refund consumers for its dark patterns and billing practices, which is the FTC’s largest refund amount in a gaming case, and its largest administrative order in history. Investors in Epic Games include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony (SONY). Reference Link