Nobody really knows the legal restrictions around this issue, so many people might be asking: is it illegal to buy or sell Fortnite accounts?
Buying or selling Fortnite accounts isn’t illegal as theft or bribery is, but it does go against the Epic Games Terms of Service, as stated here: “You may only access the Services through your own account. Users do not own their accounts, and gifting or otherwise transferring of accounts or access keys is prohibited.” In case of breaking the ToS agreements and rules, the individual can potentially face legal action and a ban from using the services and products of Epic Games.
The situation, however, is a bit more complicated. There is quite a thin line between doing something that breaks a contract and doing something illegal, so in this article, we plan on diving into the details of the legislation around buying and selling Fortnite accounts.
Is it illegal to buy Fortnite accounts?
Buying Fortnite will hardly get someone to court, but it might cause people to be banned from the game forever. The Terms of Service and the EULA, the two documents nobody reads but everyone agrees to are the reason. You only have the right to own your own account, which you have opened with your own email and other data. Though not as bad of a violation of the ToS as selling an account, buying one also breaks the rules.
However, very many people still do this, just like many people use uTorrent, even though it is illegal, and both happen for the same reason: the chances of getting caught are very, very low. That shouldn’t ever be the reason to do anything, but it also won’t stop anyone who really wants to surprise their child with new Fortnite skins for their birthday, for example. Aside from the legal aspect, there is another thing to watch out for: scammers. The typical scammer paradise is when people really want to buy something en masse but legally aren’t allowed.
This way, they will always find buyers who are willing to risk the consequences, without actually having to take the blame. The Fortnite account-selling business is crawling with scammers who claim to sell a certain skin or account, but then when the money arrives at their account, they disappear from the face of Earth. Not much legal action can be taken in this case, unless the buyer wants to risk being banned too.
Is it illegal to sell Fortnite accounts?
Skilled Fortnite players or just long-time players who have accumulated a large collection of skins and characters but are bored of the game might want to make some profit off of their accounts. This happens quite often, to the extent that people have even started creating separate accounts one after another just to sell them. The problem is, it is against the rules of the game, and might get you into bigger trouble than buying accounts. The reason for that is that though it might seem as though your accounts are owned by you, that isn’t the case.
Basically, you own the credentials and login data to an account that Epic Games owns, which contains all your achievements, skins, and game data. So technically you could sell the login info, but that does break the ToS, which claims you can only enter the game using your login info, that you gave to create an account. Trying to profit off of something that isn’t clearly yours but definitely breaks the ToS and EULA rules might just be ripe ground for the company to sue you, either for selling an intellectual property you don’t own or maybe for fraud.
If you get caught selling accounts, the least you can expect is a complete ban on all accounts that have any sort of ties to you in the past, present, and the future. Basically a lifetime ban. The worst-case scenario might be a lawsuit filed by Epic Games, though they probably won’t go that far unless you are trying to create a consistent business out of selling accounts.
Can you get banned for buying Fortnite accounts?
Yes, you absolutely can. The thing is, however, you probably won’t. As mentioned above, the sole fact that so many people do this makes it highly unlikely that Epic Games will find catch you specifically and ban you. If you don’t buy too many accounts or buy them too often and you try to remain under the radar, you can pretty much get away with it. Just watch out, since if you are caught, you won’t only get banned on your present account, but also on all accounts that can be connected to you in any way, since they will all be deemed suspicious from that point onwards.
Can you get banned for selling Fortnite accounts?
Anyone selling Fortnite accounts is playing dice with the devil, since being caught means a lifetime ban, without any questions asked. There isn’t much one can do once they are caught, except try to create a whole new virtual identity to create a new account that can’t be traced to the older accounts, which will be in Epic Games’ database as banned accounts.
It isn’t really something to criticize, since after all it is unfair to gain an advantage in a game centered around skill and patience just by buying someone’s account, and it is just as immoral to profit off of desperate parents spending heaps of money to try to satisfy their children.
If you do, however, decide to sell accounts, there are certain precautions that have to be taken into account to avoid consequences, like not advertising it openly on many internet portals and forums, since Epic Games can find that quite easily. The best way to sell accounts might just be to sell them to people you know from your personal life or met through gaming, otherwise, it really is a gamble.
At the end of the day, we do believe just enjoying the game and buying the skins and characters from Epic Games themselves is a much better and also a lot safer way to progress in the game, and is also better since you won’t get yourself into trouble and corrupt your whole gaming experience because of impatience or lack of time, skill or experience.
For sellers on the other hand, if they are good enough at the game to create and advance accounts in short timespans and sell them at the high prices they are being sold at, it would be a more productive and less immoral route to pursue a professional career in gaming since championships and tournaments from Fortnite and other video games offer way larger amounts of money in prizes if someone does happen to win.
How do you know if you got banned from Fortnite?
Online forums like Reddit and Quora are full of people nervously asking whether they have been banned from Fortnite or not. A ban from a game that means so much to so many people can be quite daunting, especially seeing as though these bans are not only bans for a couple of days or weeks, these are usually lifelong bans. However, there is no need to be overly concerned, since if you do get a ban, you will surely be aware of that, since Epic Games notifies their banned users through email and an in-game notification when trying to open Fortnite.
Most of these posts on the internet by concerned players usually describe an error message that pops up when they try to open the game, however, in case of a ban, that isn’t what you get. Any sort of error message is usually related to server problems, connectivity problems, or update requirements, not for bans. Aside from that, if you are certain you haven’t done anything that would compromise your rights to playing the game, getting an error message is most probably only that: an error.
However, if you are guilty of breaking some rules, being inactive in games, or possibly trading with accounts or even worse, in-game currency, you have much more to be nervous about. Nevertheless, an error message most probably doesn’t mean you have been banned.
