Are you owed Fortnite settlement money? Here's how to check
Players of the smash-hit online multiplayer game Fortnite remain entitled to millions of dollars in settlement money, federal regulators announced on Wednesday, with some checks arriving later this month and further applications for payments open through early July.
The checks stem from allegations that as many as 37 million people were duped into making unwanted in-game purchases through confusing design practices.
Under a 2022 settlement with federal regulators, the game's developer, Epic Games Inc., agreed to $520 million in fines and penalties, including $245 million in refunds.
The government is sending 969,173 payments, worth a collective $126 million, to players between June 25 and June 26, according to the Federal Trade Commission, bringing total funds dispersed under the settlement to nearly $200 million.
As part of Wednesday's announcement, the trade commission extended the claim process for those who may have made the in-game purchases in question.
Fortnite players who were charged in-game currency for unwanted purchases between January 2017 and September 2022 are directed to file claims at www.fortniterefund.com/file-a-claim.
The deadline to submit a claim is July 9, and individuals must be 18 or older to submit a payment request, or have a parent or guardian submit one for them.
In December, officials announced a previous round of payoffs, returning over $72 million in funds through more than 629,000 payments.
Prior to the settlement, the federal government accused the game maker of luring players into unwanted purchases with design choices including a confusing in-game layout, and features that allowed charges to be authorized when players were trying to switch the game off sleep mode, while the title was in a loading screen, or when players were previewing a potential purchase.
Last year, the trade commission reached a separate $275 million agreement with Epic over allegations it broke the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sinaloa cartel hacked security cameras to track and kill FBI informants, US says
A hacker working for the Sinaloa drug cartel was able to obtain an FBI official's phone records and use Mexico City's surveillance cameras to help track and kill the agency's informants in 2018, according to a new US justice department report. The incident was disclosed in a justice department inspector general's audit of the FBI's efforts to mitigate the effects of 'ubiquitous technical surveillance', a term used to describe the global proliferation of cameras and the thriving trade in vast stores of communications, travel, and location data. The report said that the hacker worked for the Sinaloa drug cartel, run by Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, who was extradited to the United States in 2017. The report said the hacker identified an FBI assistant legal attaché at the US embassy in Mexico City and was able to use the attaché's phone number 'to obtain calls made and received, as well as geolocation data'. The report said the hacker also 'used Mexico City's camera system to follow the [FBI official] through the city and identify people the [official] met with'. The report said 'the cartel used that information to intimidate and, in some instances, kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses'. The report did not identify the alleged hacker, attaché or victims. The US embassy in Mexico referred questions to the state and justice departments, who did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The FBI and a lawyer for Guzmán did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The collection of granular location data from people's phones by a wide variety of commercial and official actors, combined with ever-growing coverage of surveillance cameras, has posed a thorny problem for intelligence and law enforcement officials, many of whom rely on confidential informants. The report said that recent technological advances 'have made it easier than ever for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to identify and exploit vulnerabilities' in the global surveillance economy. It said the FBI had a strategic plan in the works for mitigating those vulnerabilities and made several recommendations, including more training for bureau personnel.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Bear spotted making friends with coyote in California
Showing now | News 00:41 This is the unexpected moment a bear and a coyote come face-to-face - and end up making friends. Footage shared by Altadena Sheriff's Station, in Los Angeles on Tuesday (24 June) shows the unlikely pair encountering each other underneath a bush at night. The pair stare at each other for a few moments, before nuzzling their noses on the other and standing side by side for a few more seconds. The police station shared the sweet interaction online with the caption: When you and your coworker finally take that lunch break walk you've been talking about all week.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
US charges 11 people in Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare of $10bn
US federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare – the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled – out of $10.6bn through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment. The 'transnational criminal organization' orchestrated a 'multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme' that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated 18 June. More than a million Medicare recipients had their personal information stolen and used by the defendants to file for billions of dollars in claims from Medicare and its supplemental insurers, prosecutors said in the filing. The claims were filed through medical equipment providers that the group had purchased, but no equipment was ever sent out for the payments. Medicare paid 'approximately $41 million as a result of the fraudulent submissions' and supplemental insurers are estimated to have paid out $900m more between 2022 and 2024, prosecutors wrote. The scheme was organized by Imam Nakhmatullaev, who is based in Russia, officials said, and managed the other defendants who were in Estonia, the Czech Republic and the US. The fraud was identified after 'hundreds of thousands of Americans reported their concerns to Medicare and its contractors after receiving explanation of benefit forms that reflected them purportedly receiving' equipment that they neither sought or received, the indictment said. The organization moved its proceeds through shell companies to bank accounts in countries such as Singapore, Pakistan and Israel and laundered it using cryptocurrency, according to the indictment, the New York Times reported.
