Commission Publishes the Digital Fairness Act Proposal on Dark Patterns and Cancellations

On November 11, 2026, the European Commission published a proposal for a Digital Fairness Act, together with a Simplification Directive, as part of a Consumer Package. The Commission’s Digital Fairness Act page says the Commission “adopted jointly the proposal for a Digital Fairness Act and a Simplification Directive” that day.

The proposal (PDF) (COM(2026) 1100 final, 2026/0356 (COD)) is a draft Regulation “on promoting fair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the offline and digital single market, and repealing Directive 2005/29/EC (Digital Fairness Act).” It is not law yet. The European Parliament and the Council still have to adopt it. Article 40 says the Regulation would enter into force on the twentieth day after publication in the Official Journal and “shall apply from [12 months after the entry into force].” There is no calendar application date yet.

What the Commission Proposed

The Commission’s news article lists the main aims: a ban on dark patterns, with fake almost-sold-out claims given as an example; clearer pricing, including real-time current prices and the highest possible price in virtual queues; an option to turn off addictive design such as persistent prompts; influencer disclosure of commercial content; restrictions on unfair personalised ads and prices that target minors; easier cancellation of digital contracts and subscriptions; and an end to unwanted automatic renewals and free trials that turn into subscription traps.

In the legal text, those points show up as dedicated articles, including:

• Dark patterns (Article 10): traders would not design, organise or operate their online interfaces in a manner that is likely to deceive or manipulate consumers, or that is likely to otherwise materially distort their economic behaviour. Part III of Annex I (PDF) lists dark patterns regarded as unfair in all circumstances, including false or unqualified claims about availability or popularity, persistently displaying availability or popularity to create an impression of scarcity, default options that infer consent to an extra payment, presenting a decline as the wrong choice, persistently re-requesting a choice already made, and making it disproportionately harder to refuse, withdraw or change a choice.
• Influencer marketing (Article 11): the commercial intent of a communication would have to be disclosed, for each commercial communication, through the terms “advertisement” or “commercial collaboration.”
• Personalised advertising and pricing (Articles 12 and 13): traders would not target ads based on profiling using a consumer’s personal data where the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that the consumer is a minor, or using special categories of personal data. They would also not personalise a price based on profiling in a manner reasonably likely to cause harm where the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that the consumer is a minor or is vulnerable.
• Addictive design (Article 17): traders whose digital products are intended, or can reasonably be foreseen, to encourage compulsive or excessive use would have to give consumers effective tools to disable listed features, such as autoplay, notifications not triggered by the consumer’s activity, engagement penalties, and persistent prompts that simulate interpersonal relations.
• Virtual queues (Article 19): from the moment a consumer enters a virtual queue, and for as long as they remain in it, the trader would have to display the current price (updated in real time where it varies), whether that price may vary, and, where it may vary, the maximum price.
• Free trials (Article 20): for contracts concluded online with a free trial period, the trader would have to send a reminder on a durable medium within a reasonable period before the trial ends. If that reminder is not sent, or the consumer has not expressly agreed before the end of the trial to continue on a paid basis, the consumer would not be bound by the contract.
• Automatic extension of contracts of six months or more (Article 21): a reminder on a durable medium, no earlier than 1 month and no later than fourteen days before the extension, of the upcoming extension and the consumer’s right to terminate.
• Online termination (Article 23): if the trader offers consumers the possibility of concluding contracts through an online interface, consumers would have to be able to terminate the contract through a function labelled “terminate the contract here” or an unambiguous corresponding formulation, displayed prominently and easily accessible, regardless of how the contract was concluded.

The Commission says it expects the package to save EU consumers up to €13.7 billion a year, and points to its 2025 Consumer Conditions Scoreboard: around 60% of consumers buy online, and online shoppers are over 60% more likely to experience problems than offline shoppers (Commission news; also in the Consumer Package factsheet (PDF)).

Who It Affects

The proposal would apply to business-to-consumer commercial practices before, during and after a transaction (Article 2). The explanatory memorandum says the current Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, whose scope Article 2 of the proposal reproduces, “applies to any trader targeting consumers in the EU, including when these traders are established outside the EU.” Stores based outside the EU that sell to EU consumers should treat this as relevant, even though it is still a proposal.

Stores already shipping to the EU also have a live product-identifier requirement, covered in our EU product identifiers update.

What to Test Next

This is a proposal, so nothing in it is legally required tomorrow. The useful work is a gap check against the practices the text would restrict:

• Walk your product and checkout pages for scarcity and urgency claims. If you say something is almost sold out or limited, can you back it up? Do you disclose how long a limited-time offer lasts?
• Compare the number of steps to buy with the steps to decline an add-on, withdraw consent or cancel.
• If you run free trials or auto-renewing subscriptions, check how you remind people and whether cancellation is as easy to find as signup.
• If you use virtual queues, check whether the current price, whether it can change, and the maximum price are visible for as long as someone is in the queue.
• If you work with influencers, check that commercial content is clearly disclosed.
• If you personalise prices or ads, review any use that involves minors or special-category data.
• This is not legal advice. If you sell to EU consumers, have counsel review the proposal against your checkout, promotions and subscription flows.

Selling to EU shoppers and want a second look at checkout and cancellation? Get a free audit and we’ll flag the friction and trust issues to fix first.