Fortnite to appeal €1.1m fine over “unfair commercial practices aimed at children”

Fortnite maker Epic Games has said it will fight back against a €1.1m (£968k) fine levied by the Dutch consumer regulator, which has accused the company of “unfair commercial practices aimed at children.”

An investigation by The Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) claims Epic Games “exploited the vulnerabilities of children” through “various design choices for its offerings in its Item Shop.”

This included, the ACM says, using ads aimed at encouraging kids to make purchases with slogans such as “get it now,” and “misleading” sale countdown timers that gave the impression certain items would be removed from sale before they ultimately were. The ACM states Fortnite therefore violated “requirements of professional diligence.”

In Epic Games’ response, shared with Eurogamer, the company says the ACM’s decision contains “significant factual errors about how Fortnite and the Item Shop operate” and that “the ACM is mandating changes that would result in a poor experience for players”, which it will now appeal.

In the meantime, however, Epic Games says it will make a change so Dutch players 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 24th May.”

Ahead of the ACM’s decision, Epic Games noted it had already made a number of recent Item Shop changes, and had recently said it was adding a date to each item in the Item Shop so players could see how long it would be on sale for. This will be visible as of 24th May, and is designed to remove some of the vagueness around how long certain items might be available.

Epic Games’ statement on the matter goes on to highlight the other child safety features available in the game, such as Cabined Accounts with limited features and no purchase options by default for users under 16, plus other parental controls and spending limits.

While hefty, the ACM’s fine is nothing compared to the eye-opening $520m (£427m) penalty slapped down by the US Federal Trade Commission against Epic Games in December 2022. That similarly related to so-called “dark patterns” meant to encourage spending. Epic Games did not answer that fine, and acknowledged at the time that its game had evolved considerably over time.