'Fort Knight' developer Epic Games to pay fines of over 70 billion yen
Epic Games, the developer and operator of the popular game 'Fort Knight', collected personal information of users under the age of 13 without the consent of their parents, and used dark patterns to trick users into making unnecessary purchases. So, we agreed to pay a total of 520 million dollars (about 71 billion yen). It is the highest fine imposed under the rules enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges | Federal Trade Commission
Epic FTC Settlement and moving beyond long-standing industry practices - Epic Games
Epic Games to pay $520 million for privacy violations, dark patterns
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/gaming/epic-games-to-pay-520-million-for-privacy-violations-dark-patterns/
Fortnite Fined $520M For Invading Privacy, Tricking Kids
https://kotaku.com/fortnite-epic-games-ftc-fine-privacy-refunds-skins-1849910311
The FTC has sued Epic Games in two cases.
One is that Epic Games violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and collected personal information of users under the age of 13 without notifying parents or obtaining their verifiable consent. When Epic Games was asked by parents to delete personal information, they asked them to take unfair procedures, and in some cases they did not respond to the deletion request.
Also, considering the impact on teenagers, we rejected the voice of an employee who asked us to opt-in (turn on at the user's discretion) the voice chat function, and continued to turn on the voice chat by default. There was also a suspicion that he was harmed by matching with people. Voice chat was later added with a button to turn it off, but we've received complaints that it's hard to find where it is.
The court acknowledged that Epic Games violated COPPA and ordered Epic Games to pay $ 275 million (about 37.8 billion yen) and delete the collected personal information.
Another lawsuit alleges that Epic Games used dark patterns to trick users into making unintended in-game purchases. For example, 'It's easy to make an accidental purchase while previewing an item.' Also, until 2018, children did not need the consent of parents or registered card owners to purchase in-game currency 'V-Bucks'. In addition, we have frozen the accounts of users who disputed fraudulent charges from credit card companies. When the account freeze was lifted, he warned that 'if you object to future charges, it will be permanently frozen.'
According to the FTC, there were more than 1 million complaints about fraudulent claims, and employees were concerned that a huge amount of fraudulent charges were occurring, but Epic Games ignored them all.
Regarding this matter, an administrative order was issued to pay Epic Games $ 245 million (about 33.6 billion yen), and the payment will be used for refunds to consumers. The order also prohibited Epic Games from using dark patterns to make purchases, making purchases without consent, and blocking the accounts of users who disputed unauthorized charges.
Epic Games said, ``No developer intends to end up like this.The video game industry is a fast-paced place of innovation, where player expectations are high and new ideas come first. Legislation enacted decades ago does not specify how the gaming ecosystem should function.While the law has not changed, its application has evolved and long-standing industry practice It's no longer enough, and Epic has accepted this agreement because we want to be on the front lines of consumer protection and provide the best possible experience for our players.'
Related Posts:
in Game, Posted by logc_nt