The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced plans to send $126 million in refunds to 969,173 Fortnite players who say they were charged for unwanted in-game items, like cosmetic skins. The consumer protection agency is also reopening the claims process, allowing additional players affected by the issue to file claims of their own.
The refunds and reopening of the claims process is a result of a 2022 lawsuit against Epic Games. The Fortnite developer agreed to pay $245 million in a settlement after the FTC claimed that Epic had used “deceptive practices” to bamboozle players into making unwanted purchases.
“Epic Games, the company responsible for Fortnite, agreed to pay money to settle FTC allegations related to in-game purchases,” reads a statement on the FTC’s website. “According to the FTC, the company unlawfully charged players for unwanted purchases, let children rack up unauthorized charges without their parents’ permission, and blocked some users who disputed wrongful charges from accessing their purchased content. The settlement also requires the company to get positive consent before charging users, and banned it from locking players out of their accounts for disputing unauthorized charges.”
Players must be 18 years of age to file a claim, but underage players can have their parents file a claim on their behalf. Refund eligibility applies to any players who were charged in-game currency for unwanted items between January 2017 and September 2022, had a child make charges to their credit card without their knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018, or had their account locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after disputing wrongful charges with their bank or credit card company.
Players can choose to receive their payment via a check (which must be cashed within 90 days) or a PayPal deposit (which must be redeemed within 30 days).
This isn’t the first round of refunds Epic has had to pay out in relation to the Fortnite settlement. The FTC first issued refunds in December 2024, paying out a total of $72 million to 629,344 Fortnite players. In total, nearly 1.6 million players have received refunds as a result of the settlement, and the number is likely to rise now that the claims process has been reopened.
