The Commission is strengthening consumer protection laws, bringing them into line with the digital age

The European Commission has presented its proposal for the Digital Fairness Act (DFA), a major update to the EU’s consumer protection rules designed to ensure that EU consumers enjoy the same high level of protection online as they do offline.

At the same time, the Commission proposed a revision of the Regulation on Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC Regulation), which grants it greater powers to investigate directly and impose fines in high-profile cases that have a significant impact on consumers across the Single Market.

Taken together, these initiatives will build on the existing digital regulatory framework to strengthen consumer protection, contribute to fairer online markets and create a level playing field, enabling businesses to compete, grow and innovate with confidence.

The rapid growth of e-commerce and digital markets has transformed the way we shop, making it easier than ever for consumers to access goods and services. However, this convenience must not come at the expense of fairness. Unfair online commercial practices, such as manipulative marketing tactics or hidden fees, undermine consumers’ ability to make free and informed choices. The proposals put forward will equip the EU with more effective tools to combat these unfair practices, strengthen enforcement across the Single Market and simplify the rules businesses must follow, thereby increasing compliance. The result will be greater protection for consumers and fairer competition for businesses, which, taken together, is expected to save EU consumers up to €13.7 billion a year.

New online protections for consumers

The proposed Digital Fairness Act enables EU authorities to tackle unfair practices in digital markets more effectively, ensuring that all traders are subject to the same rules. This legislation will protect consumers of all ages who shop for and search for goods or services online.

The main new features of the proposal include:

• A ban on manipulative marketing tactics (so-called ‘misleading practices’), such as false claims that a product is almost out of stock, which pressure consumers into making purchasing decisions they would not otherwise make.
• Clear and transparent pricing, particularly for in-app purchases made using virtual currencies and when dynamic pricing is used for cultural and sporting events. In virtual queues, businesses must display the current price in real time and the maximum possible price.
• Equity by design, with the option for consumers to disable addictive design features that encourage excessive or compulsive spending, such as persistent notifications. The proposal will also restrict unfair practices that encourage excessive spending, for example by banning gambling-like features for minors, such as ‘pay-to-win’ and ‘pay-to-progress’ systems.
• Clear transparency in influencer marketing, requiring influencers to be transparent about commercial content and preventing the exploitation of children’s trust in their audience.
• Restrictions on abusive personalised adverts and pricing targeted at minors or which exploit sensitive data.
• Digital contracts and subscriptions that are easier to cancel, and an end to unwanted automatic renewals and free trials that turn into subscription traps. Consumers will have the right to speak to a human member of staff via customer service and will have clear rights when using an AI agent to purchase products on their behalf.

The proposed Digital Fairness Act also includes simplification measures, and the proposals put forward include a simplification directive with specific amendments to the Consumer Rights Directive to simplify its online application. This includes simpler pre-contractual information requirements for recurring in-app purchases and clearer rules on how consumers can cancel digital media subscriptions within the withdrawal period.

Direct EU enforcement powers and better national coordination

Digital markets are currently evolving rapidly. The same is true of unfair practices, which are proliferating online and know no borders. To protect our consumers and ensure that businesses can compete fairly, we need the right tools to respond swiftly and effectively to breaches of consumer protection legislation. Centralised enforcement of EU consumer protection rules will help to deal swiftly with high-impact cases, increasing the deterrent effect of these rules, protecting honest businesses from unfair competition and safeguarding consumers from potential harm. The revision of the CPC Regulationtherefore proposes:

• Granting the Commission direct powers to investigate high-profile cases with a significant impact on consumers across the Single Market, with fines of up to 6 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover.
• To streamline and improve coordination between national consumer protection authorities in cross-border cases, by setting deadlines for key steps and improving the coordination of sanctions, for example, where fines are levied in different jurisdictions. 
• Strengthen the enforcement of regulations against non-EU companies by requiring them to appoint a legal representative in the EU to cooperate with national authorities and the Commission.

Next steps

The proposals will now be debated in the European Parliament and the Council.

Background

The Commission announced the review of the CPC Regulation and the Digital Fairness Act in its 2030 Consumer Agenda. The Digital Fairness Act was also included in the Commission’s Work Programme for 2026, whilst the review of consumer protection enforcement rules is set out in the ‘One Europe, One Market’ roadmap. These measures respond to calls for stronger enforcement and protection against unfair digital practices.

The proposal for a Digital Fairness Act is based on the findings of the Commission’s 2024 Digital Fairness Fitness Check. The CPC Regulation established the CPC Network, which brings together national consumer protection authorities to investigate and address cross-border infringements of EU consumer law. Currently, the Commission cannot directly enforce these rules, but it facilitates enforcement actions by the CPC in cases of widespread infringements with a European dimension. Since the Regulation came into force in 2020, the Network has carried out more than 30 coordinated enforcement actions. The proposal to revise the CPC is based on the findings of the 2024 implementation report, which identified several shortcomings in the current enforcement system.

 

More information: European Commission