EU Proposes Digital Fairness Act To Curb Manipulative Online Sales

The European Commission proposed a Digital Fairness Act on 11th November 2026 to restrict manipulative sales practices on websites and apps, including false scarcity warnings, subscription traps and features that encourage excessive spending.

Its press release also announced a separate revision of the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation. Under that proposal, the Commission could investigate qualifying breaches of specified consumer laws and impose fines of up to 6% of annual turnover worldwide for intentional or negligent violations.

The European Parliament and the Council are due to consider both proposals. The announcement does not put the proposed requirements into force.

Prices And Subscriptions

The draft Digital Fairness Act would require the first advertised price to include foreseeable, unavoidable charges and taxes. For virtual shopping queues, traders would have to display the current price. Where it could change during the wait, they would also have to show live updates and the highest possible price. Financial-instrument order execution is excluded from that queue rule.

Traders that offer online sign-ups would have to provide a clear online cancellation option. Digital free trials would require active consent to continue as paid contracts. Consumers would receive reminders before trials end and before certain automatic renewals.

Where a trader provides online after-sales support, a consumer could request human assistance if other options proved ineffective. The proposal excludes investment services from this provision.

The Digital Fairness Act would turn the existing Unfair Commercial Practices Directive into a regulation directly applicable across member states. The Commission presents that change as a way to reduce differences between national rules. It would complement the separate Digital Services Act, the law involved in the Commission's recent preliminary finding on TikTok's recommendation feed.

When The Commission Could Intervene

Under the CPC proposal, the Commission could open proceedings on reasonable suspicion of a breach of listed rules harming, or likely to harm, consumers across at least two-thirds of EU member states. Those countries would also have to account for at least two-thirds of the bloc's population. Micro, small and medium-sized businesses are excluded from this direct enforcement power.

If the Commission opened proceedings, national authorities would stop investigating the same trader over the same facts to provide a single EU response. Under the current CPC regulation, the Commission facilitates coordinated consumer enforcement but cannot directly enforce those rules, its press release says.

In a statement issued ahead of the proposal on 10th November, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) supported stronger rules. Its director general, Agustín Reyna, identified difficult subscription cancellations, opaque ticket prices and pressure from low-stock warnings as problems consumers face. BEUC also argued that existing digital laws leave gaps that general consumer protection must address, and called on Parliament and Council to retain the proposal's objectives.