All players who play Fortnite online and those who inner-acted with Epic Games, are playing soon to receive refund payments from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for tricking them to spend money on things they want from the game developer. This refunds form part of a settlement first announced in December 2022, during which Epic Games was told to pay $245 million to settle accusations of unfair billing practices by the FTC. These accusations were based on stealing money from players through these manipulative interface features called “dark patterns.” The FTC bills this one as the largest refund in a gaming case.
Approaches to this settlement have put just over 629, 000 payments rolling starting Monday, with more installments to follow. Approximately half of the first installment will be made via PayPal, while checks will be issued for the rest. In total, customers would receive $ 72 million in refunds.
How Much Will Every Customer Get?
Most of the customers, according to the FTC, will receive an average amount of about $114 as refunds. They had given their preferred refund method with respect to the claims forms for the payment to be done. For the PayPal option, within 30 days, it must be redeemed, while that of check recipients should redeem them within 90 days.
What did Epic Games do?
According to the FTC, Epic Games used dark patterns and other deceptive methods allegedly to coerce customers into making unnecessary purchases. The commission, for instance, claimed that confusing, inconsistent, and misleading button configurations made it easy for Fortnite players to incur charges with the mere push of a button. Additionally, attempting to wake the game from sleep mode often triggered unintended purchases. In some cases, trying to preview an i – video game would also do the trick.
