Epic Games agrees to pay $520 million over FTC investigation into Fortnite privacy violations

Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, agreed to pay about $520 million over allegations that it violated children's privacy laws and used misleading gaming features that tricked customers into shelling out millions of dollars, the Federal Trade Commission said on Monday.

The settlement over privacy violations requires that Epic adopt robust default privacy settings for children and teens, guaranteeing that voice and text communications are turned off by default.

The agreement over misleading gaming practices mandates that Epic refund consumers $245 million, the largest refund amount in a gaming case in the FTC's History.

In a statement, Epic confirmed the agreement.

"No developer creates a Game with the intention of ending up here. The video Game industry is a place of fast-moving innovation, where player expectations are high and new ideas are paramount," the company said in the statement.

"Statutes written decades ago don’t specify how gaming ecosystems should operate," the statement added. "The laws have not changed, but their application has evolved and long-standing industry practices are no longer enough."

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