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More than 500,000 Fortnite players are in line to receive a cash payment from Epic Games after the Federal Trade Commission ruled that the game maker tricked customers into making unwanted purchases. Some people have already received payments, but there's still an opportunity for new claims.
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The $245 million settlement, first announced two years ago, accused the publisher of using tactics called "dark patterns," or deceptive interface designs, to trick people into making purchases, let children rack up charges without parental knowledge or involvement, and even block user accounts when they disputed these unauthorized charges.
The FTC says Epic Games made counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configurations related to making purchases. For example, players could accidentally make a purchase while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode or while the game was in a loading screen by pressing a single button or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item.
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As a result, Epic is returning cash to affected customers who filed a claim.
The deadline to file a claim
In December 2024, the FTC issued the first round of refunds of more than $72 million over 629,344 payments. As part of a second round of refunds, the FTC sent 969,173 checks and PayPal payments on June 25 and June 26 to consumers who filed a valid claim.
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