Europe already has one of the world’s strongest consumer protection rulebooks. The Digital Fairness Act (DFA) can be an opportunity, if it focuses on making existing European rules work better in practice. Smarter enforcement must be the absolute priority moving forward.
Commissioner McGrath promised a “pro-consumer and pro-business” DFA. Let’s hold to that
A high level of consumer protection and European competitiveness are complementary goals, not competing ones. Consumers gain from clear rules that read the same from Lisbon to Helsinki. European companies gain from being able to build one product for 450 million people. Both lose out when rules overlap, diverge and pile up.
For instance, thirteen EU laws already address dark patterns and misleading practices. Yet the same design can be judged unlawful in one Member State and accepted in the next. It is time for the regulatory maze to fit like a puzzle.
The gaps the DFA was meant to fill have narrowed
The Commission’s 2024 Digital Fairness Fitness Check assessed whether the EU’s consumer law directives are still fit for purpose in the digital environment. It concluded that existing rules remain “both relevant and necessary”, but raised real concerns about harmful online practices and warned against regulatory fragmentation.
Most of these concerns have since been addressed, for instance:
- The Digital Services Act, fully applicable since February 2024, bans dark patterns on online platforms and sets rules on recommender systems, advertising and minors. The Commission has opened proceedings on these issues against several platforms.
- The KIDS Act, proposed in September 2026, aims to strengthen minors’ safety online, including protection from addictive design. European tech supports this ambition.
- The review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), expected in early 2027, will clarify rules around influencer marketing and commercial communications.
The gaps the DFA was meant to fill are far less widespread. Targeted fixes where evidence shows a real gap, combined with smarter and more coherent enforcement of existing rules, would protect consumers better than a new horizontal framework.
Enforce the rules Europe already has
Europe’s problem is not a lack of rules, but their uneven application.
Better enforcement towards all businesses operating in Europe remains the main gap to fill. This should be done based on the risks posed by each actor, and not only on their size.
A revised Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation would be a game changer. Faster and clearer procedures for coordinated cross-border action would tackle fragmentation and give businesses scaling across the Single Market more legal certainty.
Keep the DFA focused and specific
European tech CEOs call for the DFA to be:
- Narrow, covering only what no other instrument already addresses.
- Clear, with precise definitions that give companies legal certainty.
- Proportionate, matching obligations to the actual risk a service carries, not one size fits all.
- Harm-based, triggered by demonstrable consumer harm, not presumed risk.
Let’s not reinvent the wheel. Let’s make what we already have work better, benefiting consumers and European tech companies. European tech companies stand ready to work with the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council on a DFA that enforces, clarifies and simplifies.
A Portuguese, Finnish and Croatian consumer should have the same consumer protection rights. EU rules should be consistently interpreted and applied. This will strengthen consumers’ rights and allow European tech companies to build once for the whole Single Market.
