Fortnite players ‘tricked’ into unwanted purchases are starting to get refunds. Here’s how to apply

recent YORK — U.S. consumers who were “tricked” into purchases they didn’t desire from Fortnite maker Epic Games are now starting to receive refund checks, the Federal Trade fee said this week.

Back in 2022, Epic agreed to pay a total of $520 million to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and remittance methods on its popular Fortnite game. The FTC alleged the video game giant used deceptive online design tactics to trick Fortnite players, including children, into making unintended purchases “based on the press of a single button.”

Consumers could be charged while doing something as straightforward as attempting the wake the game from sleep mode, for example, or by pressing a nearby button when trying to preview an item, the agency said. The FTC also accused Epic of blocking some users who disputed the charges from accessing the content they purchased.

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 629,00 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 liquid assets for items they didn’t desire or saw their account locked after complaining to a capital card corporation about wrongful charges between January 2017 and September 2022 — as well as parents whose kid made charges on their capital cards without their knowledge from January 2018 through November 2018.

You can discover more about applying for a refund on the FTC’s website. The deadline for submitting a claim is January 10, 2025.

At the period the settlement was announced in December 2022, Epic said it accepted the agreement because it wanted “to be at the forefront of customer protection and provide the best encounter 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 aspiration will be a helpful navigator for others in our industry.”