The European Commission Proposes the Digital Fairness Act: Influencers Must Label Sponsored Content
According to greenMe, the proposal tabled on November 11 bans dark patterns, requires transparency on influencers' commercial content and foresees fines of up to 6% of turnover.
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On November 11, 2026, the European Commission adopted, together with a simplification directive, the proposal for a Digital Fairness Act that rewrites the rules for online consumers. For people working on social media the most direct point is the duty to label influencers' commercial content unmistakably. The text also bans dark patterns, the fake urgency of "only 2 items left", and requires complete prices from the start instead of extra costs revealed at checkout. It is a proposal, not a law in force: it must still pass Parliament and Council. According to the Commission, EU consumers would save up to 13.7 billion euros a year.
The proposal was adopted by the European Commission on November 11, 2026: the EU executive's official page says so, placing it together with a "Simplification Directive" in the package meant to update consumer protection rules. greenMe, which reported it on November 12 in a piece by Rebecca Manzi, calls it a landmark regulatory package and notes that the figures on avoided losses are Commission estimates. On the procedure a clarification is needed: the Commission's text is a proposal, which must be examined by the European Parliament and the Council before it becomes law.
For those who produce and consume content, the most visible change concerns commercial transparency. According to the Commission, the Digital Fairness Act requires influencers to be transparent about commercial content, and demands an end to aggressive advertising personalisation targeting minors and vulnerable people. greenMe adds another part of the picture: the new rules would ban free trials that turn into automatic subscriptions without consent.
The text does not stop at social media. The Commission lists other measures: a ban on dark patterns, the techniques that push unwanted purchases such as claiming a product is almost sold out; price transparency, with an obligation to show the current and the highest possible price in real time in virtual queues; the option to switch off "addictive" design features that encourage compulsive spending; and the duty to provide a human operator when a chatbot fails to solve the problem.
On the figures the two sources partly agree. The Commission cites savings of up to 13.7 billion euros a year for EU consumers. greenMe adds two numbers not in the executive's own announcement: a cap of 6% of global annual turnover as a fine for businesses in breach and an estimate of 88.4 billion euros in avoided losses over the next decade. The first is not in the Commission's own announcement, though it is a recurring threshold in EU digital law; here it must be attributed to the outlet, which does not name the source of those figures.
In practice, nothing changes today for anyone publishing sponsored content: the proposal still has to go through the legislative process, and the timing depends on the two institutions that will examine it. The broader picture of online shopping is the one the network follows every day, for instance with the Black Friday offers now rolling in.