Joint call for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act to better protect people online

The document argues that existing EU laws, including the Digital Services Act and the AI Act, are insufficient to address harmful online business models based on behavioural manipulation. It urges the European Commission to use the Digital Fairness Act to close legal gaps in horizontal consumer law, specifically targeting dark patterns, addictive design, and unfair personalisation, while strengthening enforcement through the Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation.

• The signatories argue that current EU legislation, such as the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, and AI Act, is insufficient because these laws are "limited in scope and content" and cannot address all unfair online practices across various sectors.
• The document highlights that the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) is outdated, having been adopted over 20 years ago, and fails to sufficiently address modern unfair online practices.
• According to the Digital Fairness Fitness Check, unfair commercial practices result in an annual financial loss for consumers of at least 7.9 billion Euro.
• Public consultation results for the DFA indicate significant support for new binding rules regarding specific harmful practices, with approximately 70% of respondents calling for regulations on addictive design, dark patterns, unfair personalisation, influencer marketing, and unfair practices in video games.
• The authors assert that digital business models often rely on "asymmetric information and behavioural manipulation," which can lead to financial, mental, and physical harm, as well as the distortion of competition and democratic discourse.
• The statement supports the European Commission's plan to revise the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation to improve the enforcement of EU consumer law, though it notes that enforcement depends on the quality of the law being enforced.

APA

Haughton-Boakes, M. (2026). Joint call for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act to better protect people online. Changing Markets Foundation. https://changingmarkets.org/joint-call-for-an-ambitious-digital-fairness-act-to-better-protect-people-online/

Chicago

Haughton-Boakes, Maddy. Joint call for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act to better protect people online. Changing Markets Foundation, 2026. https://changingmarkets.org/joint-call-for-an-ambitious-digital-fairness-act-to-better-protect-people-online/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Haughton-Boakes |first1=Maddy |title=Joint call for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act to better protect people online |publisher=Changing Markets Foundation |date=13 March 2026 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/joint-call-for-an-ambitious-digital-fairness-act-to-better-protect-people-online/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{haughtonboakes2026joint, author = {Haughton-Boakes, Maddy}, title = {{Joint call for an ambitious Digital Fairness Act to better protect people online}}, publisher = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/joint-call-for-an-ambitious-digital-fairness-act-to-better-protect-people-online/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }