Epic fined €1.1M over manipulating children through in app purchases

https://nos.nl/artikel/2598157-maker-fortnite-vangt-bot-bij-rechter-moet-boete-betalen-voor-manipuleren-kinderen

114•hvb2•2h ago

Comments

qweiopqweiop•1h ago

I used to be obsessed with in game skins as a teenager but I'm very thankful the game I played most didn't charge for them. But I remember freaking out at my parents when they stopped me playing a game one night because I wanted a new skin so badly.

I grew out of it, I can't help but feel the scarcity of such skins/items don't lead to anything good except manipulation.

jscheel•1h ago

Epic generated approximately $6 billion in revenue in 2024, just for comparison.

nba456_•1h ago

How much in the Netherlands though?

irishcoffee•1h ago

Is it relevant?

"Sorry Netherlands, despite trying to expand into the global market more, this 1.1m fine is just too much."

This fine is a rounding error for any big games studio.

ben_w•1h ago

If the fine for operating unlawfully in the Netherlands is more than the profit, not revenue, from operating in the Netherlands, that it is a reason to stop operating unlawfully in the Netherlands for even the most hard-nosed of businesses.

If Epic wishes to operate at a loss in the Netherlands because this is a rounding error, that's their problem.

irishcoffee•37m ago

They don't even have an office in the Netherlands. I'm not entirely sure they even have employees in the Netherlands. If they've made a net profit over 1.1m in the Netherlands, and I'll bet you $1.1 they have, they did not operate at a loss.

This fine is a joke.

d3rockk•1h ago

The Netherlands typically accounts for roughly 1.5% to 2% of the global video game market. After applying this share to Epic’s global estimated revenue of $5.7 billion, we can estimate roughly $100 million to $115 million for 2024.

1) Total Estimated Epic Revenue: $5.7 billion https://sacra.com/c/epic-games/ 2) Global Gaming Market: $187.7 billion https://best-of-gaming.be/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024_Ne... 3) The Netherlands Gaming Market Size: $2.5 billion https://www.imarcgroup.com/netherlands-gaming-market

sputknick•1h ago

I'm on Epic's side on this one. Having things for sale in a game is different from "manipulating children" into buying things in a game.

andy_ppp•1h ago

It’s likely the judgement is more complex that that…

tosti•1h ago

They created artificial scarcity and used time pressure to persuade children into spending their parents money.

The fine can't be big enough imho. This is an evil dark-patterned business practise.

jsheard•1h ago

Speaking of evil dark-patterned business practices, Epic just recently U-turned on lootboxes again. Fortnite did have them originally, but pivoted to the less egregious FOMO sales funnel around when it got really popular, except now they've backtracked by allowing pay-to-win and lootbox mechanics in user-created game modes.

https://www.ign.com/articles/as-fortnite-enables-third-party...

Fortnite's user-created modes are essentially an attempt to compete with Roblox, and like Roblox their age demographics skew very young, so this reads as a deliberate attempt to exploit children specifically.

koolala•1h ago

Why can't Valve and others get fined for worse designs? Because Teens play Counter-strike and not children?

Capricorn2481•1h ago

Maybe it has changed since I played it, but I honestly found Fortnite to be pretty non-predatory compared to most live service games. I know that's a low bar, but at least you can just buy stuff when you see them on there.

If we looked at the top 100 played steam games, I don't think Fortnite would crack the top 15 for most manipulative.

blell•1h ago

Children do not have money of their own and can’t spend their parents’ money.

charcircuit•1h ago

Yes, they do. They can even make money.

tosti•47m ago

But not by playing P2W games.

sentrysapper•1h ago

it is unreasonably easy to make non-refundable purchases in these games. They deserve this and every lawsuit that follows.

mattashii•1h ago

Epic wasn't fined for putting things on sale. Instead, it was fined for putting pressure on children to buy things that were put on sale; e.g. through wording like "Get it now" and "Grab it", and through design.

For details, check the ruling here (Dutch): https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBROT:2...

wvenable•46m ago

This makes no sense. You can't buy anything on Fortnite with real money. The purchase you make is for blocks of v-bucks which can then be spent on items.

The actual financial transaction is completely divorced from any items that are on sale and, hopefully, that financial transaction is completely out of the direct control of children.

basketbla•1h ago

Weirdly I agree. After seeing the truly god-awful pay to win gambling-filled landscape of Roblox, Fortnite feels pretty tame and respectful. V bucks aren't shoved down your throat, the battle passes are pretty transparent about what you get, and the whole cosmetics store feels less lootbox-heavy than a lot of games.

Edit: ope literally just saw this in another comment, whoops: https://www.ign.com/articles/as-fortnite-enables-third-party...

kotaKat•1h ago

> Now, third-party games can offer premium in-game items and effects, with developers pocketing 37% of the proceeds — temporarily doubled to 74% for 12 months.

37%? Developers get a 37% cut? Holy fucking hypocrisy from Tim Sweeney and the camp at Epic Games with their predation here.

basketbla•1h ago

Still not as bad as Roblox! (but yeah still bad)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28249094

Aurornis•1h ago

The judgment isn't for having things on sale.

wvenable•59m ago

I play Fortnite -- I get the battle pass, I have a lot of skins and items, and I have never paid a cent. I earn enough v-bucks from playing the game to never have to pay.

That's actually pretty amazing and so I question this fine situation. If you didn't give your kid a cent for Fortnite, they could still play and have great time with their friends and basically get the full experience including skins, items, and emotes.

__lain__•1h ago

I'm sure they will mourn this crippling loss of a few hours worth of revenue.

scruple•1h ago

Probably more like 90 minutes, tops.

pixl97•1h ago

Hopefully this is the first fine of many. That's where well written laws typically stack up fines as violations persist. This way you don't send some small company into bankruptcy for an actual error, and you eventually start stinging willing offenders so badly they stop at some point.

gassi•1h ago

This is a slap on the wrist for a company of Epic's size. Anyone know if this comes with restrictions on future in-app purchases made by children, or if these already exist in NL and Epic was ignoring them?

staplers•1h ago

Still cheaper for corporations to commit crimes than if a "child manipulation tax" existed.

mschuster91•1h ago

Good. Now take on all the free-to-play game ecosystem next. I'm actually thinking about starting up a youtube channel on that topic - the dark patterns, the quasi-gambling, fake ads for medical products (e.g. fat-loss pills [1]) or financial scams [2], it's out of control.

[1] https://www.kino.de/tv/warnung-vor-fake-werbung-diese-produk...

[2] https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/tech/betrugsmasch...

quitit•1h ago

That's tiny in comparison to the FTC fine. Epic settled with the FTC for more than half a billion.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/12/...

RestartKernel•1h ago

Why use a non-English source? Doesn't that encourage people to reply to the headline rather than the article?

zxcvasd•1h ago

The fine was issued in the Netherlands, by a Netherlands government body, regarding kids from the Netherlands.

The predominately spoken language in the Netherlands is not English.

riversflow•59m ago

Huh? its 2026. Auto-translate is like table stakes at this point. It is one of my favorite modern innovations, reading foreign journalism is nifty.

hvb2•40m ago

If you would like the actual court decision, you can get that, the language won't be different. Not everything is English :)

reader9274•1h ago

Why can I read and understand this article...

jmkni•1h ago

So it was basically worth it?

Stevvo•1h ago

Epic really don't need to engage in such dirty tricks to get kids money; they do all that to each other. Kids with the default Fortnite skin are bullied, excluded. The social pressure is huge.

akimbostrawman•1h ago

thats like 1 minute of fortnite revenue which is a ad masqueraded as a game

efsavage•1h ago

Roblox: Hold my beer

ThunderSizzle•1h ago

Where does the fine money go? To the victims?

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