United States of America: Announced settlement in FTC investigation into Epic Games over alleged dark patterns use

On 19 December 2022, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached an agreement with Epic Games, the developer of the video game Fortnite, to settle allegations and close its investigation concerning dark patterns. The FTC alleged that Epic Games employed dark patterns to increase the number of purchases, allowed children to purchase in-game content without parental authorisation (charging account holders without authorisation) and blocked access to purchased content. Furthermore, the company ignored complaints. Epic Games agreed to pay USD 245 million to compensate consumers for purchases made due to dark patterns. The agreement will later be subject to public comment before entering into force.