Fortnite players and other Epic Games customers who were tricked into making unwanted purchases by the game maker are set to receive refund payments from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

As part of a settlement first announced in December 2022, the video game maker was ordered by the FTC to pay $245 million to resolve allegations that it used unlawful billing practices involving design tricks so-called dark patterns to trick players into charging fees unintentionally. It is the highest reimbursement amount ever in a gambling case, the authority said.

The FTC says it will send more than 629,000 payments on Monday, with additional payouts expected at a later date. About half of the first payment tranche will be processed via PayPal and the other half will be made by check. According to the agency, customers will receive a total of $72 million in refunds.

How much money does each customer receive?

The average payment is about $114, the FTC said. Epic Games customers eligible for refunds selected their payment method when submitting a claim form. Customers who have opted to receive PayPal payments have 30 days to redeem the funds, while check recipients have 90 days to redeem them.

What did Epic Games do?

The FTC claims the Fortnite maker used dark patterns along with a variety of other tactics to trick customers into making unwanted purchases.

For example, according to the FTC, a “counter-intuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration” led to Fortnite players easily incurring unwanted charges with the press of a single button. Additionally, attempting to put the game from sleep to wake mode often triggered unwanted purchases. In other cases, pressing an “adjacent button” while attempting to preview an item resulted in a charge.

“As our complaints indicate, Epic used privacy-defying default settings and deceptive interfaces to trick Fortnite users, including teens and children,” FTC Chairwoman Lina M. Khan said in December 2022 when the settlement was first announced. “Protecting the public, and especially children, from online privacy invasions and dark patterns is the Commission’s top priority, and these enforcement actions make it clear to companies that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices.”