Epic Games Defeats Fortnite Cheater In Court, Donates Settlement To Charity

Epic Games took a Fortnite cheater to court in Australia, with the end result being the cheater apologizing publicly, closing down his business of selling cheated and compromised accounts, and paying Epic for damages, which the company will donate to charity.

According to documents obtained by GameSpot, the Federal Court of Australia determined Brandon Despotakis–better known online as BlazeFN–violated the Fortnite end user license agreement (EULA) and terms of service, infringed on Epic’s copyright, and unlawfully sold in-game accounts and cheats to other players. The ruling comes a year after the proceedings began in April 2021.

Listings for the illegal BlazeFN shop items include aimbots, limited-time “Full Access V-Bucks accounts” and “inactive” accounts that included rare or popular skins and pre-completed battle passes, among other illegal offerings. Artwork for BlazeFN’s various shop items were made to resemble Fortnite’s Item Shop.

A representative for Epic declined to elaborate on how many cheats and accounts were actually sold or whether other similar legal proceedings are underway, following the ruling in favor of Epic and against the illegal BlazeFN shop. It can be surmised that those who bought BlazeFN accounts will also be subject to penalties in-game, at the very least–though Epic declined to confirm whether it is pursuing those buyers specifically. Selling or buying accounts in Fortnite is a breach of the game’s terms even when cheats aren’t involved.

Epic offered a statement on the subject as a whole: “Selling compromised player accounts and cheat technologies puts people’s information at risk and ruins the experience for people who are playing fairly. We take the illegal sale of these items seriously and we’ll pursue all available options to make sure our games remain fun, fair and never pay-to-win.”

Despotakis released his own statement on Twitter on May 9, one week after the settlement was reached, according to the Consent Order. In it, he explicitly told would-be buyers to not ask him about Fortnite cheats or player accounts anymore. “I’d like to apologize to the Fortnite community. What I did was illegal and gave players an unfair advantage over other people who play by the rules. I won’t do this ever again.” The statement reads like his public apology may have also been a term of the settlement, though Epic declined to confirm.

As part of the settlement, Despotakis must also pay damages to Epic in an amount agreed to by both parties. The total of those damages, while not shared with GameSpot, will be donated to Child’s Play, a charity which is dedicated to improving the lives of children and teens in children’s hospitals around the world.