Epic Games has agreed to pay $520M to resolve allegations brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against the Fortnite publisher for violating online privacy protections for children and also tricking game playing into making unnecessary in-game purchases.
The settlement resolves two charges that was brought against Epic. One charge in federal court accused Epic of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by gathering the personal information of Fortnite players under the age of 13 without getting the permission of those childrens' parents.
The second charge was levied against Epic for illegally setting up real-time voice and chat capabilities in Fortnite by default. The FTC said by doing this, Epic put its younger Fortnite players at risk by enabling them to communicate with strangers during the game.
Under terms of the settlement, Epic with pay $275M in civilie fines, and refund consumers another $245M. According to the settlement, Epic neither admitted or denied any of the FTC's charges.
Epic, which is privately held, counts Sony Group Corp ( SONY ) among its investors. Company founder and Chief Executive Tim Sweeney own a controlling stake in Epic, while Chinese technology platform operator Tencent Holdings owns approximately 40% of Epic .
For further details see:
Fortnite publisher Epic Games to pay FTC $520M to settle dispute