Current Events > Did you receive an email for a fortnite refund?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/fortnite-refunds

The FTC is ordering Epic Games to refund nearly $250 million from unwanted vbuck purchases made between 2017 and 2022.

This is especially aimed to help families whose children made unwanted ingame purchases.

Check your email (the one associated with Epic Games) for a potential claim code

I don't even have an Epic account but is this just free money? Or did you actually have to buy stuff to get the refund

Damn_Underscore posted...

I don't even have an Epic account but is this just free money? Or did you actually have to buy stuff to get the refund

The latter.

You can view past transactions via your Epic Account when making your claim.

That's pretty cool. Does it apply to other games too like that Robolox that a lot of kids play? I've heard of similar issues with kids on that. Or Minecraft? Does that have in game purchases?

Per the link.

About the Settlement

Epic Games, the company responsible for Fortnite, agreed to pay $245 million to settle FTC allegations related to in-game purchases. According to the FTC, the company charged parents and gamers of all ages for unwanted items and locked the accounts of customers who disputed wrongful charges with their credit card companies.

Not sure what the full details are, or how this could apply to other games/companies, but this seems to be specific to Fortnite.

Wow, that's a non slap on the wrist. Fuck their unintuitive shopfront.

EyeWontBeFooled posted...

Wow, that's a non slap on the wrist. Fuck their unintuitive shopfront.

Part of their sales strategy was to capitalize on FOMO while obfuscating the value of their shop items.

"Get this skin that costs somewhere between $24.99 and $32.99 before it's gone! Only 9 hours, 43 minutes, and 15 seconds left to buy it before the next big ticket item is here!"

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/12/ftc-helps-fortnite-players-score-victory-royale-against-epic-games

This article sheds more light on the issue.

Epic saved your payment details and did not offer a confirmation screen on ingame purchases, making it especially easy to click on an item and buy it without intending to (or without parental consent)

There was also a $275 million penalty assessed for Epic in December 2022 related to privacy issues with Fortnite.

Basically, the game had voice chat and display names on by default. Since kids and teens are the target audience, this of course led to lots of bullying, threats, and (sexual) harassment. Epic also collected kids' under 13 information without parental consent for at least 2 years.

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/12/gift-privacy-fortnite-players

So in total we're looking at over half a billion in USD that Epic has to fork up.

I got the e-mail, not sure if I should since all the purchases I made were legit by me. Free money, though...and you still keep the items you bought.