The reason behind the Digital Fairness Act
Many of the popular websites or applications in use today are built, at least in part, to influence user behaviour beyond ordinary persuasion. A 2022 European Commission study found that 97% of the most popular websites and apps used by EU consumers deployed at least one “dark pattern”, a design technique intended to steer users toward choices they would not otherwise make, ranging from concealed opt-outs to pricing disclosed only at the final stage of checkout. In response, the Commission is preparing a legislative measure. The Digital Fairness Act, expected to be tabled in the fourth quarter of 2026, is intended to address the gaps left by existing consumer protection legislation and to directly regulate the manipulative design practices shaping online commercial activity.
What the Digital Fairness Act targets
The key points that the new Digital Fairness Act is expected to address and clarify consist mainly of:
- Dark patterns, which represent deceptive interface design, misleading pop-ups and hidden mechanisms,
- Unclear pricing, mostly the practice of “drip pricing”, where mandatory costs regarding a product or service are disclosed only at the final stage of a transaction, rather than upfront,
- Undisclosed influencer marketing, in which the commercial intent is not made sufficiently transparent to the consumers,
- Addictive design and exploitative personalisation, practices that leverage behavioural data to target consumer vulnerabilities and interests, with particular concern for minors.
Legislative context
The DFA is designed to complement, not duplicate, the EU’s existing digital rulebook. The Digital Services Act already prohibits certain forms of manipulative interface design, but is limited by the services and actors falling within its regulatory framework.
The DFA is expected to reach further, addressing unfair commercial practices regardless of where they occur, a frequently cited example being subscription flows that make signing up effortless while making cancellation deliberately difficult.
In that sense, the DFA is less about redefining what a “dark pattern” is, and more about closing the gaps the DSA was never designed to cover.
A proposal worth watching
The Digital Fairness Act is still at the proposal stage, and its final shape will only become clear once the Commission tables the text in late 2026 and negotiations begin. The practices under scrutiny are already easy to identify: fake countdown timers, opt-out buttons that are harder to find than the opt-in, and checkout flows that reveal mandatory costs only at the last step.
The DFA does not create the underlying legal issue from scratch; rather, it is intended to provide a more explicit and coherent framework for certain digital practices that are already regulated, in certain circumstances, under existing legislation.
For now, the DFA is one to watch rather than one to act on. We will follow its progress as it moves from proposal to negotiation.
Sources
European Union, Official Sources
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Behavioural study on unfair commercial practices in the digital environment – Dark patterns and manipulative personalisation: final report (2022). Official EU publication
- European Parliament, Digital Fairness Act – Legislative Train Schedule. European Parliament – Digital Fairness Act
Legal / Professional Commentary
- Taylor Wessing, Digital Fairness Act and Digital Omnibus, Interface – Predictions 2026 (2025). Taylor Wessing – Digital Fairness Act and Digital Omnibu
- Van Berings, The European Commission’s proposal for a Digital Fairness Act (2026). Van Berings – Digital Fairness Act
Background / Explanatory Sources
- Gblock, EU Digital Fairness Act – Dark Patterns 2026, Gblock – EU Digital Fairness Act
- Digital Fairness Act, What Is the Digital Fairness Act? Digital Fairness Act – What Is the Digital Fairness Act?