Rotterdam court upholds €1.1 million fine against Fortnite developer Epic Games

The Rotterdam District Court has upheld a decision by the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to fine Epic Games International, the developer of Fortnite. The watchdog imposed a fine of 1.1 million euros in 2024, concluding that the company had engaged in unfair commercial practices, with children as the primary target.

Players can buy cosmetic items in the game to alter their characters’ appearance, but regulators say they were pushed to purchase items like “emotes” and “wraps” via ads featuring urgency cues such as “get it now” and ticking countdowns. The watchdog considers this type of advertising illegal, a position upheld by the court.

Epic Games sought to reverse parts of the required changes, including the removal of countdown timers, but the court rejected the request. The company must maintain the measures currently in place.

The court noted that research by UNICEF indicates that children frequently regret in-game purchases in online titles like Fortnite. Academic studies further suggest that the younger the players, the greater the likelihood that they will make such purchases.

The ACM argues that Fortnite’s item offerings, including unclear countdown timers that obscure what players can purchase and for how long, are “too complex” to enable informed decision-making, particularly for children.

The court concluded that the ACM properly justified the necessity of the sanctions. Epic is barred from rolling back the measures and is required to pay the fine.

Dutch enforcement action against Epic mirrors developments abroad. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Epic Games to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for deceptive design practices, including the use of dark patterns that pushed users, children among them, into making purchases without explicit consent.

The verdict has already led to Epic changing several parts of their game. Including the removal of countdown timers, availability periods are now presented more clearly, and children in the Netherlands are no longer shown items that are close to expiring.