The Federal Trade Commission has opened the second stage of its record refund effort linked to the Fortnite settlement, starting to disburse more than $126 million to eligible gamers in the United States. This follows a previous payout of about $72 million, taking total refunds to about $198 million, and inching closer towards the $245 million set aside for refunds.
In December 2022, Epic Games reached a historic settlement with the FTC in which it agreed to pay $520 million in total, $245 million for refunds to customers and another $275 million for breaking the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The probe found that Fortnite’s design employed “dark patterns,” deceptive design practices that led users, including children, into unintentional purchases with little prompting, such as inadvertently tapping a button during loading or browsing a product. The FTC also found that Epic hid fees, allowed kids to make unauthorized purchases without parental permission, and even blocked users who objected to charges from viewing some content.
The FTC says 969,173 players have been paid out through PayPal and checks in this round. With about $126 million paid out, the mean refund is around $130 per individual, more than the $114 average paid in December 2024 to 629,344 claimants, which was worth about $72 million. Putting both phases together, the FTC has made up to around $198 million in refunds, with about $47 million remaining unallocated for later payouts.
How to claim your refund
If you missed the first refund window (which was from September 2023 through January 2024), there’s still hope—the FTC has extended the deadline to July 9, 2025.
Eligible consumers can file or update their first refund requests through the official website: www.ftc.gov/Fortnite.
The initial eligibility criteria are still:
- Players charged for accidental in-game purchases with V‑Bucks from January 2017 through September 2022;
- Parents whose kids made unauthorized buys between January 2017 and November 2018;
- Customers whose accounts were blocked following the dispute of unauthorized transactions over the same period.
This resolution has made history not only because it is one of the biggest consumer redress actions in gaming, but it is also the FTC’s first significant enforcement of deceptive microtransaction models. The hide-and-go button design, payment mechanism confusion, and simplicity of unintentional purchase all highlighted the increasing issue with unethical “dark patterns.” The FTC’s formalized penalty and public attention indicate a shift towards openness and consumer-centric design in the video game space.