Dutch Consumer Group Starts Mass Claim Against Epic Over Fortnite

Stichting Massaschade & Consument, a Dutch consumer foundation, announced on September 24, 2026 that it is starting a mass claim against Epic Games, alleging the Fortnite maker systematically pressured young people into spending money. The foundation has formally held Epic liable and invited it to discuss a collective settlement, saying it will serve a summons if those talks do not produce a solution.

The foundation alleges Epic put young people under systematic pressure to spend money, among other things with countdown clocks that suggested an offer was about to disappear while it often remained for days. On behalf of everyone who played Fortnite before turning 21, it demands repayment of what players spent under that pressure, plus a damages payment.

Dutch Regulator’s Fine Upheld in Court

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) previously fined Epic €1.125 million over the practices, a penalty the Rotterdam District Court upheld in January 2026, according to the foundation’s announcement. Epic’s objections and appeal against the fine decision were rejected by ACM and the court, the foundation’s FAQ states. SMC characterized the penalty as a fraction of what Epic earned from Fortnite in the Netherlands.

ACM determined that Epic pressured young people into purchases they would not otherwise have made, with expiring timers that were incorrect, bright yellow buy buttons such as “Get it now”, and a rotating offer on which players had to decide within a day. The regulator intervened after two University of Amsterdam researchers described in a study how Fortnite sells items to players in the middle of the game, at the moment they are least critical, the foundation said.

Fortnite launched in 2017, and by the foundation’s estimate one million Dutch people played it while they were minors. The game has always been free; Epic earns mainly from skins and other items in its Item Shop and from a battle pass that is renewed every season. Payments run through V-Bucks, Epic’s own currency, which players buy in advance in bundles.

“We are not demanding a ban on Fortnite. But now that it has been established that Epic broke the rules, the logical next step is that the players who spent money because of that also get something back,” said Lucia Melcherts, chair of SMC. “Epic deliberately designed the game so that it put players under pressure to make purchases. Young consumers deserve extra protection against exactly that. The bill belongs with the maker, not with the players or their parents.”

US Settlements and Dutch Youth Spending

In the United States a similar case ended differently, the foundation noted: after an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, players there did get their money back. Epic reached a $245 million settlement with the FTC in late 2022, intended for refunds to players, and paid a further $275 million because it collected children’s data without parental consent. The FAQ states that the second settlement also covered Epic exposing children to bullying behaviour through Fortnite’s voice channels.

In the foundation’s account of the US case, the FTC described how Epic handled the signals it received: its own employees wanted to build in an extra click so that players would first have to confirm a purchase, and Epic held that back precisely because it would slow impulse purchases. More than a million complaints about unwanted purchases came in, and Epic blocked the accounts of players who reclaimed their money through their bank.

Dutch young people are familiar with such impulse purchases, the foundation added, pointing to a Wijzer in Geldzaken survey of more than 1,000 16- to 19-year-olds. Nearly six in ten buyers of coins such as V-Bucks said it does not feel like real money, and half said they regretted a purchase made under time pressure.

The foundation also noted that a European legislative proposal, the Kids Act, was introduced the week before its September 24 announcement. The proposal would bring online games under the same requirements as social media: notifications meant to pull players back into a game and rewards for daily logins would be banned, and makers would have to prove their game is safe for minors rather than the other way around. For the past, the law arranges nothing, the foundation said.

Who Can Join and How the Claim Is Financed

The claim covers natural persons who played Fortnite between its launch in the Netherlands on September 26, 2017 and the date of the court’s eventual judgment, while they were ordinarily resident in the Netherlands and had not yet reached the age of 21. Anyone who meets the conditions (living in the Netherlands now and when they played, being under 21 when they played, and having played at any point after September 26, 2017) can register free of charge via gefortnaaid.nl, including people who have since become adults; how much or little they played makes no difference.

Parents and legal guardians can register minor children, and a minor who registers alone is asked for a parent or guardian’s contact details so consent can be requested by email. Participants can end their participation, and an opt-out later in the procedure lets them choose whether a judgment or collective settlement applies to them.

Compensation would differ per person. As an example, the FAQ states that a player who bought €100 of items in the Item Shop, such as skins, pickaxes and emotes, could potentially recover that €100 from Epic. If the court rules that purchases can be reversed, the items purchased may also have to be returned to Epic and could no longer be used in the game. Beyond repayments, the foundation demands that Epic end the addictive effect of Fortnite’s design and compensate the harm it caused, and it is claiming a separate damages payment for Epic’s collection of children’s personal data without parental consent, which the FAQ frames as violations of the GDPR.

Before the substance of the case is considered, the court will first assess whether SMC meets the admissibility requirements to bring the claim on behalf of the affected players. The case ends with a collective settlement with Epic or a binding judgment by the court or the court of appeal. The foundation expects the procedure to take several years and says it will publish regular updates on its progress through its newsletter and website.

Two external litigation funders, Omni Bridgeway and Winward, bear the costs and process risk of the procedure. Participation runs on a no cure, no pay basis, so participants pay nothing if the case is lost. If Epic has to pay compensation, the funders are first repaid the funded costs and then receive a fee equal to the highest of two amounts: 2.5% to 25% of the compensation remaining after those costs, or two to five times the funded costs, with that multiple increasing every six months after 73 months. The foundation’s lawyers work at lower hourly rates than usual and, if the case is won, receive an additional fee based on hours worked.

The compensation for the funders and lawyers together never exceeds 25% of the total compensation after deduction of the procedural costs, so participants always receive at least 75% of that amount, or 69.75% net if 21% VAT is due, according to the FAQ. The court will review the funders’ and lawyers’ compensation in the procedure, and SMC will try to recover the procedural costs from Epic Games.

SMC is a non-profit foundation that has previously started collective actions against companies including Airbnb, TikTok, Google, Sony and Klarna. In the Fortnite action it is represented by the law firm Finch Dispute Resolution.