Epic Games is fined $500 million for unethical marketing practises in Fortnite and infringement of child protection rights.

Epic was penalised by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for failing to comply with the Coppa regulation (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), notably because voice and text chat features were enabled by default for young players and their user names were made public. Epic implemented default settings that limit conversation, obscure usernames, and need invitations to join. In addition, juvenile accounts now demand adult verification for settings.

In a second complaint, the FTC alleged that Fortnite often billed for in-game items without users' explicit agreement, and exploited interface elements such as dark patterns to lure people to purchases. New measures are also being implemented in this area: If you wish to buy something right now, you must affirm your plan to buy again later. There are additional cancellation options available.

Epic instantly saved the credit card details of everyone who made a single payment in Fortnite, and subsequent purchases no longer required the CVV code. This made it easy for many children to continue making purchases without their parents' consent, according to the FTC. The penalties is divided between $275 million that Epic has to pay to the US Treasury Department and $245 million in compensation that has to be paid out to affected consumers.