Epic Games to pay $275 million for violating children’s privacy law
It was revealed this week that Epic Games the creator of the Fortnite video game will have to pay more than half of $1 billion due to privacy violations and unusual charges to its customers. The United States Federal Trade Commission as explained that Epic Games was fined $275 million for violating child privacy laws, changed default privacy settings and paid $245 million in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges. “As our complaints note, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that deceived Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan.
Epic Games Privacy Violations
“The Federal Trade Commission has reached settlements requiring Epic Games, Inc., creator of the popular video game Fortnite, to pay a total of $520 million in relief over allegations that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and deployed design tricks ., known as dark patterns, to trick millions of players into making unintended purchases.”
“The Department of Justice takes its mission to protect consumers’ data privacy rights very seriously,” said Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General. “This proposed order sends a message to all online providers that the collection of children’s personal information without parental consent will not be tolerated.”
“Epic has put children and teens at risk through its lax privacy practices and is costing consumers millions in illegal charges through the use of dark patterns,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Under the proposed orders announced today, the company will be required to change its default settings, return millions to consumers and pay a record fine for its privacy abuses.”
“The FTC’s action against Epic involves two separate record settlements. As part of a proposed federal court order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Epic will pay a $275 million monetary penalty for violating the COPPA rule—the largest fine 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 $245 million to reimburse consumers for its shady patterns and billing practices, which is the FTC’s largest refund amount in a gaming case and its largest administrative order in history.
Jump to the FTC website via the link below for more details.
Source: FTC: Epic
Filed under: Technology News, Top News
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