Fortnite
The FTC has reached a $245 million settlement with Epic Games, which they deemed used confusing button placement and poor cancellation practices to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized and unwanted purchases from players over the last few years.
Does that sound like you or your family? Well, you may be entitled to a piece of that pie then. The FTC has just put up its guidelines for who is eligible for a refund, which you can find below:
- If you are a parent whose child made an unauthorized credit card purchase in the Epic Games Store between January 2017 and November 2018.
- If you are a Fortnite player who was charged V-Bucks for in-game items you didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022.
- If you are a Fortnite player whose account was locked after disputing unauthorized credit card charges between January 2017 and September 2022.
So as you can see, two of these categories went right up until two months ago, when the FTC said these practices were still going on. While it’s not clear what the refund verification process is here, I would advise against trying to just get all your money back for things you bought and actually wanted, as that may go poorly. But if you misclicked due to Epic’s storefront shenanigans? Sure, go for it.
We do not yet know what sort of cash will be offered as part of this settlement per refund or per affected player, and it will likely vary on a case-by-case basis.
How do you get the refund? The FTC is going to be setting up a refund program and they will be posting updates here about it. They will also be emailing Fortnite players who made purchases between those time period letting them know about the settlement, which is going to be a whole lot of people, no doubt, but Epic has agreed to comply with this. The FTC warns of scams that may ask you for a fee to file for the settlement, as they do not do that, and that would be from a malicious actor.
As with most settlements, even giant ones like this, given how many people end up getting payouts, it’s usually quite a small amount in the end. And the FTC warns this may take months to process once the refund system goes live. But if you feel like Epic scammed you or your family out of money over the years through purchases that shouldn’t have been made, at least there will be some level of recourse and cash coming your way.
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