Yes, the FTC Fortnite settlement is real

Fortnite is one of the most popular video games in the world, with more than a million people playing at any one time on mobile devices, video game consoles and computers. While the game is free-to-play, the developers make money through sales of in-game items such as character skins, gear and dances. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint alleging that Epic Games, the company that makes Fortnite, used design tricks to charge consumers for such items without their expressed informed consent, charged account holders without authorization and banned consumers from accessing previously paid-for content when they disputed unauthorized charges with credit card providers.

In September 2023, claims that the FTC and Epic had reached a settlement to refund people who made in-game purchases in Fortnite went viral. Many people reacted to this news by asking if it was real, and if it was safe to claim a refund through the claims website.

THE QUESTION

Is the FTC Fortnite settlement real?

THE SOURCES

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• An FTC spokesperson
• Epic Games, the company that makes Fortnite

THE ANSWER

Yes, the FTC Fortnite settlement with Epic Games is real. The settlement gives people an opportunity to claim partial refunds for unwanted in-game purchases.

WHAT WE FOUND

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced in a Sept. 19 press release that it was beginning to email millions of people with Fortnite accounts that they might be eligible to get some money back from unwanted purchases made in-game.

It’s unlikely that people will see full refunds for their unwanted purchases. The FTC says claimants will be eligible to get a refund for “some of the money” they lost.

The refunds are the result of a December 2022 settlement between Epic Games, the company that makes Fortnite, and the FTC. As part of the settlement agreement, Epic said it will pay $520 million to the FTC, $245 million of which will go to reimbursing consumers’ unwanted purchases. Epic said the FTC will handle settlement reimbursements.

The FTC says Epic charged gamers of all ages for unwanted items purchased through the in-game store and locked the accounts of customers who disputed wrongful charges with their credit card companies. 

Kids could buy hundreds of dollars worth of digital items in Fortnite without parental confirmation by using payment information the game may have saved without the parent’s knowledge, the FTC claims. Additionally, the FTC claims that Fortnite’s payment system was so confusing that millions of players of all ages were charged for items they didn’t want.

The FTC’s decision and order requires Epic to take the alleged facts in the complaint as true in any subsequent civil litigation by or on behalf of the FTC.

Gamers use real-world money to purchase Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks. V-Bucks are then used to buy any items in the in-game shop, Epic Games explains.

The following people are eligible to file a claim with the FTC to receive compensation from this settlement:

• People who were charged in-game currency for items they didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022
• People whose children made charges without parental knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018
• People whose accounts were locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after reporting wrongful charges to their credit card company

An FTC spokesperson confirmed to VERIFY that you can request a refund for any unwanted item you were charged for, which the FTC will then confirm by cross-referencing information it has on player purchases. The FTC is not asking for any additional proof that the purchases were made or were unwanted at this time, but it may do so at a later date, the FTC spokesperson said.

People who receive an email from the FTC with a claim number may apply for compensation at www.fortniterefund.com/file-a-claim. According to the FTC, it is emailing more than 37 million people who may be eligible for compensation. 

If you don’t receive an email by Oct. 19, 2023, the FTC says you can file a claim using your Epic Account ID, or you can seek help from the administrator at 1-833-915-0880 or admin@fortniterefund.com. If you don’t know your Epic Account ID, you can follow these steps to find it.

Only people who are at least 18 years old can file a claim. Anyone under 18 must ask a parent or guardian to complete a claim form for them.

The FTC says it doesn’t currently know how much it will pay for each approved claim or when the refunds will be paid out. Multiple factors, including how many people file a claim, will determine the amount a person is compensated for their claim.

The deadline to file a claim is Jan. 17, 2024.

People who file a claim will not lose any Fortnite items they’ve purchased, the FTC says. Claimants’ Fortnite accounts will not be affected.

Epic Games says it has made a number of changes based on the FTC lawsuit and subsequent settlement. The company has made purchases easier to cancel, enabled self-service refunds that don’t require a reason for refunding, added an explicit yes/no confirmation before saving payment information, added a parental control option that requires a PIN to authorize purchases and updated its fraud prevention measures to stop automatically disabling accounts for disputing credit card payments.