Epic Games has defeated an Australian Fortnite cheater in a year-long lawsuit. Now, the cheater is forced to pay damages, shut down their shady business selling cheats, and publicly apologize for their actions.
The Federal Court of Australia settled the suit against Brandon Despotakis, aka BlazeFN on May 2. Documents obtained by GameSpot revealed that the Court determined that Despotakis had violated the Fortnite end user license agreement (EULA), the terms of service, and infringed upon Epic's copyright by illegally selling in-game accounts to other players.
The BlazeFN shop sold Fortnite accounts ranging from those which came with rare or popular in-game cosmetics and pre-completed battle passes all the way to accounts that included cheats such as aim assistance tools.With or without cheats, the buying or selling of Fortnite accounts is a clear breach to the battle royale game's terms. Proceedings for the cast started back in April 2021.
BlazeFN reportedly also used artwork that looked remarkably like that of Epic's own within their unlawful shop.
Regarding the lawsuit's result, Epic Games stated, "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."
Fortnite players who sold or purchased their accounts through the BlazeFN store could also face penalties, though Epic has not shared any plans to pursue that line of action yet.
BlazeFN has additionally shared their own statement, which reads:
"Hey everyone, this is BlazeFN. Until very recently I sold unauthorised Fortnite cheats and compromised Fortnite player accounts. I won't be doing this anymore because Epic Games caught me and commenced legal proceedings against me in Australia.
"I am also subject to legal restrictions that prevent me from doing this in the future and have to pay a monetary settlement which Epic will donate to charity.
"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."
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Epic will donate the full sum of the damages obtained to the charity Child's Play, an organization with a mission to improve the lives of children through the power of play.
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