Epic fined €1.1M over manipulating children through in app purchases(nos.nl)
117 pointsby hvb28 hours ago16 comments
  • quitit7 hours 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/...

  • gassi7 hours 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?
    • staplers7 hours ago
      Still cheaper for corporations to commit crimes than if a "child manipulation tax" existed.
  • qweiopqweiop7 hours 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.

  • __lain__7 hours ago
    I'm sure they will mourn this crippling loss of a few hours worth of revenue.
    • pixl977 hours 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.
    • scruple7 hours ago
      Probably more like 90 minutes, tops.
  • RestartKernel7 hours ago
    Why use a non-English source? Doesn't that encourage people to reply to the headline rather than the article?
    • zxcvasd7 hours 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.

    • hvb26 hours ago
      If you would like the actual court decision, you can get that, the language won't be different. Not everything is English :)
    • riversflow7 hours 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.
  • jscheel7 hours ago
    Epic generated approximately $6 billion in revenue in 2024, just for comparison.
    • nba456_7 hours ago
      How much in the Netherlands though?
      • d3rockk7 hours 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

      • irishcoffee7 hours 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_w7 hours 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.

          • irishcoffee6 hours 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.

  • Stevvo7 hours 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.
  • spullara6 hours ago
    So glad the courts are letting them run their own app stores.
  • reader92747 hours ago
    Why can I read and understand this article...
  • 7 hours ago
    undefined
  • sputknick7 hours 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.
    • tosti7 hours 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.

      • jsheard7 hours 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.

      • koolala7 hours ago
        Why can't Valve and others get fined for worse designs? Because Teens play Counter-strike and not children?
      • blell7 hours ago
        Children do not have money of their own and can’t spend their parents’ money.
        • charcircuit7 hours ago
          Yes, they do. They can even make money.
          • tosti6 hours ago
            But not by playing P2W games.
      • Capricorn24817 hours 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.

    • basketbla7 hours 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...

      • kotaKat7 hours 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.

    • mattashii7 hours 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...

      • wvenable6 hours 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.

    • sentrysapper7 hours ago
      it is unreasonably easy to make non-refundable purchases in these games. They deserve this and every lawsuit that follows.
    • wvenable7 hours 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.

    • Aurornis7 hours ago
      The judgment isn't for having things on sale.
    • andy_ppp7 hours ago
      It’s likely the judgement is more complex that that…
  • jmkni7 hours ago
    So it was basically worth it?
  • mschuster917 hours 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...

  • akimbostrawman7 hours ago
    thats like 1 minute of fortnite revenue which is a ad masqueraded as a game
  • ThunderSizzle7 hours ago
    Where does the fine money go? To the victims?
  • efsavage7 hours ago
    Roblox: Hold my beer