European Commission proposes Digital Fairness Act and direct enforcement powers

The European Commission has put forward a Digital Fairness Act that would restrict manipulative online interfaces, some profiling-based advertising and pricing, and digital features designed to encourage compulsive use. A companion proposal would give the Commission direct powers to investigate and enforce certain cross-border consumer-law cases.

The measures adopted by the Commission on 11 November are proposals, not law. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union must examine them under the ordinary legislative procedure and may amend or reject them.

Under the proposed Digital Fairness Act, traders could not design or operate visual, auditory or other elements of online interfaces in ways likely to deceive or manipulate consumers or otherwise materially distort their economic behaviour. An annex would identify dark patterns considered unfair in all circumstances, while delegated powers would let the Commission update that list in response to technology, market developments, consumer research and enforcement experience.

The proposal also reaches some personalised commercial practices. Profiling-based advertising could not use a consumer’s personal data when a trader knows with reasonable certainty that the person is a minor, or use special-category personal data protected under the General Data Protection Regulation. Traders would not have to process additional personal data solely to assess age, and online platforms already covered by the relevant section of the Digital Services Act would be excluded from that provision.

Profiling-based personalised pricing would be prohibited when it is reasonably likely to harm a consumer and the trader knows with reasonable certainty that the person is a minor or is vulnerable because of age, credulity, disability or a serious circumstance that impairs judgment.

For digital products intended, or reasonably foreseeable, to encourage compulsive or excessive use, traders would have to offer accessible controls that disable specified features separately or together. The proposal names autoplay and uninterrupted feeds, non-interaction notifications, engagement streaks or penalties, and persistent prompts that simulate interpersonal relationships.

Other provisions would require traders to disclose the monetary value of purchases made with paid virtual currencies and provide controls to disable paid variable-reward systems. Traders would have to disclose reward probabilities, while paid variable-reward, pay-to-progress and pay-to-win mechanisms for minors would be barred subject to proposed carve-outs tied to a separate EU KIDS Act.

Digital contracts are also covered. The draft would require reminders and active acceptance before a free trial converts to a paid service, reminders before automatic renewals, an online contract-termination facility, access to a human customer-service representative, and consumer control over the main parameters of automated contracting systems.

The proposed regulation would repeal and replace the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive with a directly applicable regulation while preserving the core framework for unfair practices.

A separate revision of the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation would let the Commission open proceedings when it reasonably suspects a widespread infringement with an EU-wide dimension under covered consumer laws. The Commission says the current system allows it to coordinate national authorities but not enforce consumer law directly, and that coordinated cases and penalties can move slowly.

That enforcement proposal would set deadlines for key steps in coordinated national actions, strengthen the coordinated imposition and collection of fines, and require traders not established in the European Union that target EU consumers to appoint an EU legal representative able to cooperate with authorities. For Digital Fairness Act breaches investigated directly under the proposed framework, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 6% of a trader’s total worldwide annual turnover. That power is not currently in force.

The Digital Fairness Act file is identified as 2026/0356 (COD). Under the ordinary legislative procedure, Parliament and the Council must agree on the same text before adoption. The Commission draft says the regulation would enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal and apply 12 months later, but those terms can change during negotiations.