the developer North-American from Epic Games Inc. received two fines, in the total amount of 520 million dollars, imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Commission alleges that the company adopts abusive practices against the consumer of its main game, the fortnite.
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The first fine received is related to the violation of the children's rights privacy protection law (COPPA), while in the second, the Federal Trade Commission found Epic guilty of misleading consumers into unwanted purchases.
The value of the fines together totals US$ 520 million, the first of which was US$ 275 million, and the second, US$ 245 million. This value is marked as the highest penalty applied by the FTC in all history. If converted into reais, the value exceeds R$ 2.7 billion.
Children's right privacy
As demonstrated by the FTC, Epic Games collected personal data from several children, without first checking whether the parents agreed with this. As if that were not enough, the system adopted to delete data from minors' accounts was very confusing, ending up with the company not accepting the request.
Fortnite's default settings authorize the recording of communications, both audio and text, which is harmful to minors. According to the FTC, when children and adults are placed in the same game, it encourages a scenario of high toxicity, and, in some extreme cases, these minors were even encouraged to commit suicide.
In addition to the fine to be paid, the company must remove all recorded data from users under the age of 13, as well as how to change the default setting for accounts for those under 18, leaving communication channels disabled.
misleading interface
Regarding the second fine, this was applied because the company adopted a series of mapped buttons and confusing standards, which end up leading consumers to buy things within the game, without even knowing it. The practice is known in the United States as "dark patterns", something that translates as "dark patterns".
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