back to article Epic coughs up the dirty V-Bucks: Fortnite's 'dark pattern' refunds hit accounts

Consumers tricked into making unwanted purchases in Epic Games' popular Fortnite title should see refunds start to hit their accounts this week, according to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC said Monday that it was disbursing a round of refunds totaling more than $72 million a little less than two years since it …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    “The average payment is said to be around $114”

    What are you kids doing?

    Oh nothing, Mum…

    1. David 132 Silver badge

      Re: “The average payment is said to be around $114”

      Obligatory XKCD Penny Arcade...

      1. Sixelast

        Re: “The average payment is said to be around $114”

        I am completely fascinated by how awful this strip is. I just went through several of them - some don't have punchlines at all, let alone funny ones.

  2. JavaJester
    WTF?

    Android has always allowed 3rd party stores

    You tick the magic box in settings that allows side loaded programs to run and install the store you want. Amazon has an Android store for years.

    1. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

      Re: Android has always allowed 3rd party stores

      Yes, and when you do so, you (or at least, I did) get/got a stern, frightening-to-teh-newbies warning about untrusted software, malware, blah-blah.

      That said, there are metric crap-tons of Android malware out there, and most newbies have a poor sense of what is reasonably-safe, and what is not.

      (Running F-Droid here, having manually downloaded the .APKs for the F-Droid store and Termux to my laptop, and scanning rhem with VirusTotal.com before installing them on my phone.)

  3. IceC0ld

    so, the gaming Co is gaming the gamers playing the game .......................

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2K Next

    NBA2K next - every time the game loads a "Purchase this DLC" flash screen appears about 2/3 seconds after the menu options appear with the "buy" button being the same button you use to select one of the menu options.

    Incredible that multiple platforms (Steam, Xbox and PS) allow them to get away with this.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: 2K Next

      Don't know how other platforms work relative to payments, but for android I use single purchase virtual credit cards, so I (or my family) won't buy anything by mistake.

      Subscriptions are paid from other accounts.

      1. Mimsey Borogove

        Re: 2K Next

        I don't have any kids, but I always keep the "parental" controls on so I don't accidentally buy anything.

  5. Roland6 Silver badge

    Microsoft will need to watchout

    "For example, players could be charged while attempting to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing an adjacent button while attempting simply to preview an item."

    These have some similarity to the methods MS have and deploying to get uses to upgrade Windows, Windows Mail, subscribe to 365 etc.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like