EU Proposes Digital Fairness Act to Ban Dark Patterns and Loot Boxes

The European Commission plans to present a legislative proposal named the Digital Fairness Act on Wednesday, Punto Informatico reported.

Following a public consultation held last year, the draft text reviewed by Euronews and Bloomberg outlines new provisions designed to update three existing consumer protection directives.

The Tech TL;DR:

• The European Commission is set to introduce the Digital Fairness Act to update consumer protection rules across web, app, and AI platforms.
• New rules explicitly target manipulative user interfaces known as dark patterns and impose stricter protections for minors.
• Violations of the proposed legislation could carry financial penalties of up to 6 percent of global annual revenue.

The upcoming legislation aims to modernise three core European regulations: the Unfair Contract Terms Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive, and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. According to Euronews, the new proposal is intended to entirely replace the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

The draft text focuses heavily on dark patterns, defining them as user interfaces intentionally crafted to manipulate consumer behavior. Ten specific cases are listed in the current draft. These include making subscription cancellations disproportionately more complex than sign-ups, hiding pricing or automatic renewal terms, and falsely suggesting that a product lacks alternatives or is in high demand.

Additional prohibited practices involve repeatedly inserting low-availability warnings during checkout, pre-setting options that bundle extra items, presenting the refusal of an offer as an incorrect choice, and exerting persistent pressure on users to alter previous choices. The draft also bans the use of confusing double negatives and deceptive notifications suggesting another user has contacted them.

Minors receive targeted protections under the proposed rules. The draft bans loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanisms in video games, while requiring virtual currency payments to be deactivated by default. Platforms must also provide tools allowing users to disable addictive design features, including infinite scrolling, auto-play, and push notifications.

The legislation requires platforms to implement a clear, accessible button for terminating subscriptions and bans automatic charges following a free trial period. Specific provisions also target AI chatbots that simulate personal relationships, alongside rules governing AI shopping agents. Non-compliance with the Digital Fairness Act carries administrative fines reaching up to 6 percent of global annual revenue.