Epic Games forced to change Fortnite shop after being fined for \u2018exploiting children\u2019 Epic Games Inc.The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) has fined Epic Games over $1.2 million after finding that Fortnite\u2019s microtransactions \u201cexploited the vulnerabilities of children\u201d. This has prompted the publisher to make changes to the game\u2019s shop. Epic Games certainly isn\u2019t the first publisher to receive a fine related to the exploitation of children. This will however be the second time that the company has been penalized for a similar issue. A ruling in December 2022 saw the Fair Trade Commission issue a $275 million fine for violating children\u2019s privacy. That incident also prompted Epic to refund $245 million to their customers. Now, the ACM of the Netherlands has issued multiple fines totaling just over $1.2 million USD for exploitative practices. In response, Epic has announced impending changes to the Fortnite Item Shop to avoid further sanction. ACM fines Epic Games for \u2018exploiting children\u2019 The ACM issued a press release outlining the reasons for fining Epic Games over \u201cunfair commercial practices aimed at children in Fortnite\u201d. The article criticized a perceived use of FOMO tactics to pressure children into purchases. Singling out language like \u201cGet it now\u201d and \u201cBuy now\u201d to accuse Epic Games of including \u201cads that directly exhort children to make purchases\u201d. The statement also directly mentioned the Fortnite Item Shop\u2019s countdown timers attached to \u201citems that were still available even after the timer had reached zero\u201d. \u201cThrough various design choices for its offerings in its Item Shop, Epic exploited the vulnerabilities of children,\u201d the release concluded. \u201cThis is in violation of the requirements of professional diligence.\u201d The ACM has given Epic until June 10, 2024, to alter the Fortnite Item Shop so that the company may avoid further financial penalties. Epic Games responds to $1.2 million fine with changes to Fortnite Item Shop In its own statement responding to the ACM release, Epic Games announced planned changes but contested the decision. \u201cThe findings in the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) decision contain significant factual errors about how Fortnite and the Item Shop operate,\u201d Epic\u2019s statement opened. The company outlined recently revealed changes to the Fortnite Item Shop that seem to have been prompted by this legal dispute. Those include: Removing the Item Shop timer to instead display the player\u2019s local time when the Item Shop will refresh and items may leave the Shop. – Removing tiers and colors of cosmetics in the Item Shop. – Adding the date that an item will rotate out of the shop to the Item Description on May 24, 2024. – \u201cWhile our appeal is pending, players in the Netherlands that are under the age of 18 will not be able to see or purchase items that are in the shop for less than 48 hours, beginning May 24, 2024,\u201d the publisher added. These changes appear to meet the standards of the ACM as it noted in its release. \u201cACM is of the opinion that Epic will comply with the binding instruction if it implements the above changes,\u201d the organization allowed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Epic Games forced to change Fortnite shop after being fined for \u2018exploiting children\u2019 Epic Games Inc.The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) has fined Epic Games over $1.2 million after finding that Fortnite\u2019s microtransactions \u201cexploited the vulnerabilities of children\u201d. This has prompted the publisher to make changes to the game\u2019s shop. Epic Games certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}