The European Commission is expected to present a draft Digital Fairness Act (DFA) on Wednesday, t3n reports. Citing Euronews, which reported the main points before publication, t3n says the draft lists dark patterns in detail: designs that make signing up easy and canceling hard, prices and auto-renewal terms placed where they are hard to find, false scarcity notices at checkout, false claims about a product's popularity and artificial time and purchase pressure.
According to the reported draft, free trials could convert to paid subscriptions only with active consent, customers would be reminded before automatic renewal and could cancel at any time on short notice, and dynamic prices would have to be shown more transparently. The reported draft would also let users turn off potentially addictive features, including autoplay, streak rewards and chatbot features that simulate personal relationships.
The draft would also ban personalized advertising aimed at minors, bar loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics for minors and require clearer influencer ad labels. According to t3n, the DFA is meant to replace the EU's 2005 directive on unfair commercial practices with a regulation, so the rules would apply directly in all 27 member states. Parliament and Council still have to negotiate it, and t3n says it could become binding for businesses by 2030 at the latest if they agree.
