EU drafts Digital Fairness Act, with fines up to 6% of global revenue

Brussels wants to outlaw the sneaky stuff. The European Commission has published a draft Digital Fairness Act (DFA), a consumer protection package targeting unclear pricing, addictive design features, ads aimed at minors and "dark patterns" such as subscriptions that are hard to cancel. Under the draft, companies in breach could be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.

The proposal attacks overspending head-on, especially where children are involved. It would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics in games, persistent prompts and personalized ads or prices aimed at minors. It would also require clear, transparent online pricing for cultural and sports events, and let users switch off "addictive design features that encourage excessive or compulsive spending." Influencers don't escape either, and would have to disclose commercial content.

"Our consumer protection rules will help ensure that businesses compete on the merits of their products and services, not on their ability to exploit consumers or their ability to evade the rules," EU justice chief Michael McGrath said. "We are not making it harder to do business, we are making it harder to do business unfairly."

Enforcement is set to move too. The Commission wants to shift power from individual member states to a more centralized system, giving itself direct authority to investigate large-scale cases with major consumer impact, faster coordination with national regulators, and stronger tools against non-EU companies.

The centralization would sweep away the patchwork of enforcement that currently varies country to country, France among them. It also tilts regulatory weight away from Ireland, home base for Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft. A recent UN expert report flagged concerns about the independence of Ireland's privacy regulator, citing the risk of "undue influence" from the tech firms hosted there.