The average refund is about $114, and players can still apply to be part of the settlement.
In New York, the Federal Trade Commission announced that American consumers who unwittingly bought items from Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, are starting to receive refunds for their purchases.
Back in 2022, Epic Games agreed to pay $520 million to settle complaints related to privacy issues concerning children and payment methods within the highly popular Fortnite game. The FTC claimed that Epic Games used deceptive online tactics to trick players, especially children, into making purchases they did not intend to make, all with just one click of a button.
Consumers could unexpectedly end up making purchases while simply trying to wake the game from sleep mode or by accidentally pressing a button nearby while attempting to preview an item. The FTC also accused Epic Games of preventing some users who contested the charges from accessing the items they had bought.
Beyond a $275 million fine related to collecting personal information on players under the age of 13, the settlement included $245 million in customer refunds. Now, the first batch of those refunds are being sent out.
On Monday, the FTC announced it was sending over 629,000 payments to eligible customers who submitted claims. About half of those refunds are PayPal payments, which should be redeemed within 30 days, and the rest are checks, which should be cashed within 90 days.
The average refund is about $114, the FTC noted. This first round of payments amounts to a total of more than $72 million, according to the agency — leaving about $173 million left to be distributed.
Impacted consumers can still apply for a refund online. People who are eligible for these payouts include Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency for items they didn’t want or saw their account locked after complaining to a credit card company about wrongful charges between January 2017 and September 2022 — as well as parents whose child made charges on their credit cards without their knowledge from January 2018 through November 2018.
You can learn more about applying for a refund on the FTC’s website. The deadline for submitting a claim is January 10, 2025.
At the time the settlement was announced in December 2022, Epic said it accepted the agreement because it wanted “to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.” The Cary, North Carolina-based added that it was already rolling out changes “to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry.”
