Epic Games, the developer and publisher of the video game Fornite, will pay $520 million in fines to settle with the FTC over violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The FTC had accused Epic of pairing children and teens “with strangers,” exposing them to “dangerous and psychologically traumatizing issues,” and failing to introduce adequate parental control systems.
“Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is a top priority for the Commission, and these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a statement.
Epic will pay two fines, including a $245 million fine against Fortnite’s in-game store and refund systems, and another $275 million fine to address child privacy concerns.
The FTC said Epic failed to “cure,” or address, COPPA violations. The FTC called Epic’s attempts to address the harassment issue on-platform as “weak-willed,” noting that it took two years after launch for Epic to “finally [introduce] parental controls to the game.”
