The European Commission has proposed a sweeping new consumer law that would ban dark patterns, outlaw addictive design tricks and force online sellers to show the full price up front. The Digital Fairness Act, presented in Brussels on November 11, would replace the 2005 unfair commercial practices directive with a regulation that applies directly in every member state. Companies that break the rules could face fines of up to 6% of their worldwide turnover.
What the ban would cover
The heart of the proposal is a ban on dark patterns, the interface tricks that push people into choices they would not otherwise make. Ten named practices would be banned in every case, including false claims that a product is almost sold out, fake popularity signals and countdowns. The Commission says the list can grow later as new tricks appear.
Addictive design gets its own section. Shoppers would gain the right to switch off features built to keep them scrolling or watching, such as endless feeds and autoplaying video. Personalised advertising aimed at children would be banned across all websites and apps, extending a rule that currently applies only to the largest platforms under the Digital Services Act.
Pricing and contracts are the other big target. Sellers would have to include unavoidable fees in the first price shown, ending the checkout surprises that the Commission says cost European consumers 10.3 billion euros a year. Subscriptions would need a clear cancellation path, with reminders before free trials end and contracts renew.
Influencers and enforcement
Influencer marketing would face clearer disclosure rules, with paid promotions and commercial content labelled so followers can tell advertising from opinion. The proposal also covers purchases inside games and apps, including loot boxes and in-app currencies, which the Commission says have escaped proper scrutiny until now.
Enforcement would move up a gear. The Commission would gain direct powers to investigate and fine companies itself, rather than relying only on national regulators. The proposal also revises the consumer protection cooperation rules so cross-border cases move faster, and it carries the 6% turnover penalty already familiar from the bloc’s digital rulebook.
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Read plainly, this is Brussels finishing a job it started with the Digital Services Act and the AI Act: the rules now follow the design of the product, not just its content. The dark-patterns list is the sharp end, because it names tricks every shopper recognises and bans them outright instead of arguing each case.
If the proposal survives negotiation, the compliance headache will fall hardest on marketplaces and travel sites, where urgency cues are a business model. The same design-first logic already shapes Europe’s rules for testing AI systems before they ship, and the fairness act extends that thinking from what AI says to how every screen is built.
The open question is scope. The Commission’s consultation drew 1,733 responses, with 72% backing binding dark-pattern rules, but the proposal must still pass the European Parliament and the Council, where lobbies will push to narrow the list. Watchers are also checking whether provisions on AI shopping agents and relationship-simulating chatbots, seen in a leaked draft, made the final text.
Why It Matters
It matters because the practices it bans are the ones that cost ordinary shoppers real money: the fee that appears at checkout, the subscription that renews silently, the countdown that invents urgency. The Commission puts the annual cost at 10.3 billion euros, and a single EU-wide rule would replace 27 different national approaches with one standard every platform must meet.
It also matters beyond Europe. The bloc’s digital rules have a habit of becoming the world’s default, because platforms find it cheaper to build once to the strictest standard. If the fairness act passes in anything like its current form, the ‘only 5 left’ banner and the endless scroll will be on borrowed time everywhere, not just in the EU.
Background
The proposal was presented by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Michael McGrath as part of a wider consumer package that also revises enforcement cooperation. It follows a fitness check of EU consumer law and a public consultation, and it now goes to the Parliament and the Council for negotiation, where the text can still change.
Source: the Commission’s speech and IAPP’s summary of the proposal.
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