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The European Commission has published a summary of feedback from its recent consultation on digital fairness. The summary highlights several key areas of concern:
Dark patterns
Respondents strongly supported action against manipulative design practices such as creating a false impression of choice, using ambiguous language, and causing click fatigue.
Addictive design
Most participants backed measures to curb addictive design features, calling for these to be switched off by default for all users. There was less support for an outright ban on such features for children.
Video games
There was strong support for greater transparency in gaming, including:
- Displaying real-world prices for items purchased with virtual currencies
- Clearer odds for loot boxes and similar products
- Options for consumers to disable virtual currencies and related features
Unfair personalisation
Respondents favoured tighter controls on personalised advertising, including bans on targeting minors and vulnerable consumers with personalised pricing.
Influencer marketing
Two-thirds of respondents called for stronger safeguards against unfair influencer practices. Key proposals included mandatory disclosure of advertising, brand and agency compliance checks, and restrictions on claims, eg those related to cosmetic procedures, to protect minors.
Other issues
Only around 25% supported measures against drip pricing, misleading reference pricing, and problematic subscription contracts (which is interesting, as those issues were considered key when the previous UK government passed the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act) and the CMA is employing a laser focus on weeding out drip pricing and misleading reference pricing. However, other people backed broader initiatives such as a "fairness by design" obligation and recognising online vulnerability in consumer definitions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, businesses responding to the consultation emphasised the need for simplification, particularly reducing pre-contract information requirements and rebalancing cancellation rights.
Next steps
We expect the first draft of the Digital Fairness Act towards the end of the year, and it will be shaped by these insights.
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