Judge Orders Court Role in FTC’s $520M Settlement With Epic Games

“Additional provisions” are to be written into the FTC’s proposed stipulated order for permanent injunction and civil penalty judgment against Epic Games for violating children’s privacy law (see 2212190064), said a text order Thursday (docket 5:22-CV-00518) from U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle for Eastern North Carolina in Elizabeth City. Boyle wants the proposed order to require that he be given notice when third-party privacy assessors are appointed to enforce the injunction, said his order. He also wants copies of the third-party assessments to be filed with the court. The Dec. 19 proposed order gives the FTC sole oversight of the privacy assessments, with no role for the court. Boyle gave no indication he will have a say in the assessor's selection, only that he wants to be told who it is. The assessments are to be done initially and every two years thereafter, says the proposed order. For each assessment, Epic will send the name, affiliation and qualifications of the proposed assessor to the associate director for enforcement in the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, says the proposed order. That individual will have sole authority to approve the assessor, it says. Boyle gave the parties until Feb. 2 to file an updated proposed order for his review that incorporates the additional provisions. Epic agreed to a record-breaking $520 million settlement to resolve allegations it used dark patterns to trick millions of young gamers into making unintentional purchases via the Fortnite app.