The Digital Fairness Act, explained for website owners

What the Digital Fairness Act is

The DFA is the European Commission’s follow-up to its “digital fairness” fitness check, published on 3 October 2024. That review looked at three consumer laws, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive, and concluded they are still relevant but only partly do their job online.

The Commission’s answer is a new law aimed at the tricks people meet on websites and apps every day: interfaces that push you towards one choice, timers that aren’t real, subscriptions that take one click to start and ten to stop.

Where it stands today

• 3 October 2024: The fitness check of EU consumer law is published.
• 24 October 2025: The Commission’s public consultation on the Digital Fairness Act closes.
• Q4 2026 (planned): The Commission’s proposal, according to its 2026 work programme as tracked by the European Parliament’s Legislative Train. Not published as of 7 October 2026.
• After that: The European Parliament and the Council negotiate the text, and businesses usually get a transition period once it’s adopted. No application date can be given yet.

We’ll update this page when the proposal is published, with what it actually says.

What it’s expected to cover

The European Parliament’s Legislative Train lists the problems the act is meant to tackle. Each one maps to something you can already see on a live website:

• Dark patterns: Interfaces that steer, pressure or trick people. Our guide to dark patterns covers the types regulators already act on, like confirmshaming and unequal consent buttons.
• Fake urgency and scarcity: Timers that restart for every visitor and “only 2 left” claims nobody can check. See fake countdowns and fake urgency.
• Subscriptions and cancelling: Free trials that roll into paid plans and cancellation that’s harder than signing up. For online contracts, the EU withdrawal button is already required.
• Unfair personalisation: Personalised offers and prices that exploit people’s vulnerabilities.
• Addictive design: Digital products designed to keep people hooked.
• Influencer marketing and unfair terms: Hidden advertising, and terms people are pushed to accept, such as a pre-ticked agreement box.

What already applies, without waiting for the DFA

A lot of what the DFA is expected to tighten is already against the law. Regulators don’t need a new act to fine a site for these:

• Unfair Commercial Practices Directive: Bans misleading and aggressive practices. Its blacklist (Annex I, point 7) already includes falsely claiming a product is only available for a very limited time.
• Digital Services Act, Art. 25: Since 17 February 2024, the DSA has barred online platforms from designing their interfaces to deceive or manipulate users.
• GDPR and the ePrivacy rules: Consent has to be freely given and as easy to refuse as to give. That covers trackers before consent, missing reject buttons and pre-ticked boxes.
• Consumer Rights Directive, Art. 11a: Since 19 June 2026, online contracts need a clearly labelled button to withdraw, added by Directive (EU) 2023/2673. Read what it requires.

Regulators are already using these rules: our cookie banner fines tracker lists verified decisions from 2024 to 2026.

What to do now

• Remove countdown timers that aren’t tied to a real deadline, and stock claims you can’t back up.
• Make cancelling a subscription as easy as starting it, from the same place.
• Put “Reject all” next to “Accept all” on your banner, with the same size and colour.
• Untick every optional box by default: newsletters, terms, partner offers.
• Keep a record of how your site looked and behaved. If a regulator asks, screenshots and dates help.
• If you sell to EU consumers, check you have the EU withdrawal button with the free withdrawal button checker.
• Run a free scan to see which of these your site does today. Shops can run the store test for consent, dark patterns, the withdrawal button and accessibility at once.