The European Commission has formally proposed its Digital Fairness Act (DFA), which would ban paid loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics for players under 18 across the European Union (EU).
The Commission adopted the proposal on November 11th, after a draft of the text leaked earlier this week. The official version keeps the rules for games that Inven reported from the leaked draft. Commissioner Michael McGrath called it "the most ambitious reform of EU consumer protection rules in a generation".
What the proposal means for games
Article 14 says any company selling a paid-for virtual currency must show the real-money value, or an estimate of it, of anything bought with that currency. In games aimed at minors, or where the company is "aware with reasonable certainty" that minors play, paid-for currencies must be "disabled by default" and can only be switched on with a parent or guardian's approval.
Under Article 15, every game that sells loot boxes would have to list the items players can get and the odds of getting them. All players, adults included, must be given "effective tools" to turn paid loot boxes off. The same article bans selling paid loot boxes to minors outright, and Article 16 applies that ban to "pay-to-progress and pay-to-win mechanisms". The proposal describes loot boxes, wheels of fortune and collectible card packs as sharing "the speculative features of gambling".
Article 17 would let players turn off features designed to encourage "compulsive or excessive use". These include rewards for logging in at set times and penalties for missing them, as well as notifications not linked to anything the player did.
What happens next
The DFA is part of a wider consumer package that also targets fake scarcity claims, hidden fees and subscriptions that are hard to cancel. According to the Commission, a separate reform would let it investigate large cross-border cases itself and fine companies up to 6% of their worldwide annual turnover.
The proposal now goes to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, which must both agree on a final text. The regulation would apply 12 months after it enters into force.
