Attorney Michael Easley for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “This historic civil penalty, totaling over a quarter-billion dollars, lays down a marker for online service providers everywhere,” said U.S. “Protecting the public, and especially children and teens, from online privacy invasions is a top priority for the Commission, and this enforcement action makes clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.” “As our complaint notes, Epic used privacy-invasive default settings that harmed young Fortnite players,” said FTC Chair Lina M. “The department is committed to enforcing the protections against unauthorized collection of information from consumers, particularly children.” Boynton, head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “Parents have a right to know and to consent before companies collect their children’s personal information,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. “This proposed order sends a message to all online providers that collecting children’s personal information without parental consent will not be tolerated.” “The Justice Department takes very seriously its mission to protect consumers’ data privacy rights,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. The government further alleged that Epic Games maintained default privacy settings that were unfair under Section 5 of the FTC Act, in that the default privacy settings publicly broadcast child and teen Fortnite players’ display names and put children and teens in direct, real-time communication with adult Fortnite players. Epic Games nonetheless failed to notify parents that it was collecting children’s personal information and to obtain verifiable parental consent for that collection, as required by the COPPA Rule. The government further alleged that Epic Games possessed actual knowledge that it collected personal information from children, including their names, email addresses, and identifiers used to keep track of players’ progress, purchases, settings, and friends lists. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the government alleged that Epic Games designed and marketed Fortnite for use by children. Epic Games is the developer of the online video game “Fortnite.” Epic Games will also be subject to a permanent injunction regarding children’s personal information that it previously collected. (Epic Games) to pay $275 million in civil penalties as part of a settlement to resolve alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule), and the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Department of Justice, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), today announced a settlement that, if approved by a federal court, will require Epic Games Inc.
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