European Commission proposes a Digital Fairness Act on dark patterns, profiling and addictive design

The European Commission's Digital Fairness Act page says that on 11 November the Commission adopted a proposal for a Digital Fairness Act together with a Simplification Directive. The documents listed on that page are dated 11 November 2026. The proposal is COM(2026) 1100 final, 2026/0356 (COD), dated Brussels, 11.11.2026. It would repeal Directive 2005/29/EC and replace it with a regulation on unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices. It is a Commission proposal. It is not an act published in the Official Journal.

Article 40 says the regulation would enter into force on the twentieth day following publication in the Official Journal, and would apply from 12 months after entry into force. That application date is written in square brackets as a placeholder. The text does not give a calendar day.

The digital-fairness chapter includes rules that can reach automated and AI products. Article 10 says traders shall not design, organise or operate online interfaces in a manner likely to deceive or manipulate consumers, or likely to otherwise materially distort their economic behaviour. Article 12 says traders shall not target advertisements based on profiling, as defined in the GDPR, by using personal data where the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that the consumer is a minor, or by using special-category personal data. Article 13 says traders shall 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 because of age, credulity, disability, or a specific misfortune or circumstance of such gravity as to impair judgement. Article 15(3) says traders shall not offer paid-for variable reward systems to minors where the product is directed at minors or the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that minors use it. That paragraph does not apply to providers of online social networking services, video-sharing platforms, AI companions and general conversational chatbots that are subject to Article 13(2) of a text the proposal calls the EU Kids Act. Article 17 requires easily accessible tools to disable listed features that encourage compulsive or excessive use. The list includes features and system behaviours that encourage continued use by simulating interpersonal relations, such as persistent prompts to continue engaging with an automated system. Article 17 does not apply, for practices concerning minors, to traders subject to Articles 9, 14 and 15 of that EU Kids Act text, or to traders providing services in the categories in Article 2(4), points (c) and (e), of that text.

Article 35 says member states must lay down penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Where penalties are imposed under Article 21 of the consumer-protection cooperation regulation, the maximum fine must be at least 4% of the trader's annual turnover in the member state or member states concerned. Where that turnover information is not available, member states must provide for fines whose maximum is at least EUR 2 million. Paragraph 6 says the Commission may impose fines not exceeding 6% of the trader's worldwide annual turnover under Article 43 of a text the proposal calls the New CPC Regulation, for infringements the Commission investigates under that text.

What it means for business: this is a Commission proposal. It does not set a calendar start date. Traders that design online interfaces, personalise ads or prices, or offer digital products to EU consumers are the group the text addresses. Some duties for AI companions and general conversational chatbots are left to the proposed EU Kids Act where that text applies. The 4% and EUR 2 million figures are minimum ceilings for the fines Article 35 describes, and the 6% figure is written as depending on a separate CPC proposal. This describes the proposal. It is not advice on a particular interface.