FTC to give $126 million back to Fortnite players who were charged for unwanted items — 950,000 payments refunded, and the deadline to claim your cash was just extended

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it’s sending over 950,000 payments amounting to more than $126 million in total to U.S.-based players who were charged for unwanted items in Fortnite. The agency says that affected users can file a claim at the FTC Fortnite Refunds page until July 9 to get back the money they spent due to Epic Games’ use of dark patterns in the game. This amount is part of the FTC’s $245 million judgment against the company finalized in 2023, when it was found guilty of tricking users, especially children, into racking up charges.

Approved claims will get their refunds through checks or PayPal payments starting June 25, and recipients have 90 days to cash in their checks or 30 days to redeem their PayPal payments. If you’re unsure if you’re affected by this refund, you can reach out to the refund administrator, Rust Consulting, Inc., at 1-833-915-0880, or you can send an email to [email protected]. Note that the FTC does not require any form of payment to get the refund, and that it will also never ask for your account information.

All of this stemmed from multiple complaints against Epic Games for its use of dark patterns, which made accidental purchases on Fortnite so much easier. It also didn’t require parental consent or cardholder confirmation for V-Bucks purchases, meaning children can spend hundreds of dollars on in-game purchases before the parent or guardian discovers that they’ve been charged. Aside from that, it was reported that the company intentionally hid its cancel and refund buttons to make it harder for customers to reverse these unwanted transactions.

The case was first brought to the FTC in December 2022, and it released its final order for Epic Games to refund users in May 2023. However, it wasn’t until December 2024 that the first round of refunds was issued, amounting to over $72 million shared between nearly 630,000 affected transactions. This latest announcement would bring the total amount refunded to nearly $200 million. Still, we expect another round of refunds, as this is still less than the total penalty of $245 million that the FTC put on the company. Epic Games was also fined another $275 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), bringing the total penalty to over $500 million — one of the largest amounts ever faced by a gaming company through the FTC.

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