Fortnite players who were charged for unwanted purchases in the game where cartoony characters battle on a virtual island are starting to receive what could be $245 million in refunds from Epic Games for what the federal government called manipulative online practices.
Denver Wills, a 20-year-old college student near Anniston, Ala., who has been playing Fortnite since middle school, said that a friend had received $350 and that he hoped to get a similar amount. It would help him cover the costs of building a new computer.
“Any money’s good money at this point,” said Wills, who is waiting for his check in the mail.
Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks, can be spent on cosmetics, weapons and outfits — known as skins — that enable players to make their avatars look like celebrities and fictional characters. To appear as John Wick, a player must spend about $19; the rapper Juice WRLD, who died in 2019, is about $14. When it is not on sale, a bundle of Spider-Man outfits and paraphernalia costs almost $50.
Epic agreed in December 2022 to a $520 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that sent a strong signal that federal officials were taking a more assertive stance toward regulating the tech industry. Customers could ultimately receive $245 million for what the agency called Epic’s use of “dark patterns” to trick millions of players into unwanted purchases. Another $275 million will settle accusations that the studio violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
A representative for Epic, which released Fortnite in 2017, said the company did not have additional comments beyond a statement it made when the settlement was announced. In that statement, Epic said it now asked for confirmation that players wanted to buy character weapons and outfits.
“The old status quo for in-game commerce and privacy has changed, and many developer practices should be reconsidered,” the statement said. “We share the underlying principles of fairness, transparency and privacy that the F.T.C. enforces.”
In a news release this week, the federal agency said the settlement “also requires the company to get positive consent before charging users and banned it from locking players out of their accounts for disputing unauthorized charges.”
PayPal payments and checks worth more than $72 million were sent out to a group of more than 629,000 Fortnite players on Monday, said Juliana Gruenwald Henderson, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission.
On social media this week, Fortnite players shared the size of their refunds, with examples ranging from $20 to $500. The average refund was about $114, Henderson said.
She said there were no details on when the next set of refund payments would be sent out or what the total amount would be. It depends on how many more people submit claims online before the deadline of Jan. 10, 2025.
Wills said that his claims form, which he filed in September 2023, asked him how many V-Bucks he had mistakenly spent in the game. “I went through my Fortnite locker and picked out the stuff I had bought on accident,” he said.
Wills said that he continued to play Fortnite after the accusations against Epic emerged, but that he was pleased it was compensating players.
“It’s pretty obvious,” he said, “that there were probably children spending their parents’ debit cards and credit cards on skins in the game because it was so easy to do that.”
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