FTC fined the authors of Genshin Impact and banned the sale of lootboxes to children
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Cognosphere, which produces Genshin Impact in the U.S., $20 million in a case involving violations of the Children's Privacy Act and banned the sale of lootboxes. This is reported on the FTC website.
Lootboxes are game containers with a set of items that fall out randomly. As part of the agreement, the company must pay compensation and exclude the sale of its cases to children under 16 without the consent of their parents.
According to Samuel Levin, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, Genshin Impact tricked children, teens and other players into spending hundreds of dollars on prizes they had little chance of winning.
"Companies using these tactics will be held accountable if they deceive players, especially children and teens, about the true value of in-game transactions," he concluded.
The FTC also required the authors of Genshin Impact to disclose the likelihood of items falling out of lootboxes and the exchange rates of multi-level virtual currency, Gazeta.Ru added.
Back in August 2024, analysts at the online school of gamemadev (game development) and computer graphics XYZ told Izvestia that gamers' in-game purchases have actually begun to exceed spending on games - in July alone, users donated 20 .4 billion rubles.
