In the USA, parents are suing Epic Games because Fortnite is said to lead their children to FOMO purchases with timers. They claim that the timers in the shop run out, yet the discounts and limited items are still available for days and even weeks afterwards. Epic Games has already commented on the matter.
Why are the parents suing? In the USA, parents have filed a lawsuit against Epic Games. It concerns the shop in Fortnite. This is said to trigger “Fear of missing out” (FOMO) in children. FOMO describes the feeling of being afraid of missing out on something.
According to the parents, this happens repeatedly in the Fortnite shop, for example during sales or for exclusive items that are supposed to disappear after a countdown.
However, the parents claim that the prices of items in Fortnite often do not change back for “many days or even weeks” after the sale. Additionally, items that were supposed to be available only for an exclusive period are still purchasable after that period has expired.
This is considered illegal according to their legal opinion, as the timers lead children to make purchases so that the item does not disappear forever, even though it remains available. The parents are now taking legal action against this artificial scarcity in San Francisco.
Fortnite often features interesting events, such as during Halloween:
Parents against Epic Games
What does the lawsuit say? “This was an unlawful scheme,” states the lawsuit. “Fake sales with invented expiration times are misleading and illegal under state laws that prohibit unfair and deceptive trade practices. These prohibit misleading advertising regarding the reasons or existence of discounts and representations that articles have characteristics or qualities that they do not have.” (via scribd.com)
The parents also refer to a court ruling from the Netherlands in their lawsuit, where Epic Games had to pay €1,125,000 because it exerted pressure on children through practices like timers and “Buy Now” buttons (via acm.nl).
How has Epic Games responded to the new lawsuit from the parents? Epic Games has already released a statement regarding the lawsuit:
This complaint contains factual errors and does not reflect how Fortnite works. Last year we removed the countdown timer from the item shop, and we provide safeguards against unintended purchases.
These include a mechanism for holding purchases, immediate cancellations of purchases, self-service returns for shop purchases, and an explicit yes/no choice for saving payment information.
If a player creates an Epic account and indicates that they are under 13 years old, they can only make purchases with real money once a parent has given their consent. Once this has been done, we offer industry-leading parental controls, including a PIN to protect purchases. We will defend ourselves against these allegations.
What happens next? The parents are suing Epic in a court in San Francisco. The next step lies with the judge, who must decide whether to allow the lawsuit as a class-action suit, which could include a large portion of the Fortnite player base.
If the parents are successful in their lawsuit, this could lead to changes in Fortnite that may also affect European players. Moreover, this could set a precedent that extends to other games with similar mechanics. A gamer has taken on Nintendo: “Can do this all day” – Gamer takes on Nintendo, sued for up to 7 million euros
