UCPD

Personalized advertising and pricing are increasingly common online practices, and prompt discussions about fairness and consumer rights in the EU.  This post examines how these practices are regulated under EU consumer protection law, and what we anticipate from the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA).  We also consider how data protection rules—such as the GDPR—interact with consumer protection laws.

This is the third post in our series on the DFA—a draft EU law currently being prepared by the European Commission and expected to be published in mid-2026.  Previous posts covered influencer marketing and AI chatbots in consumer interactions.Continue Reading Digital Fairness Act Series — Topic 3: Personalized Advertising and Pricing

On December 9, 2022, the European Commissioner for Justice and Consumer Protection, Didier Reynders, announced that the European Commission will focus its next 2023 mandate on regulating dark patterns, alongside transparency in the online advertising market and cookie fatigue. As part of this mandate, the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (“CPC”) Network, conducted a sweep of 399 retail websites and apps for dark patterns, and found that nearly 40% of online shopping websites rely on manipulative practices to exploit consumers’ vulnerabilities or trick them.

In order to enforce these issues, the EU does not have a single legislation that regulates dark patterns, but there are multiple regulations that discuss dark patterns and that may be used as a tool to protect consumers from dark patterns. This includes the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Digital Services Act (“DSA”), the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”), and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (“UCPD”), as well as proposed regulations such as the AI Act and Data Act.

As a result, there are several regulations and guidelines that organizations must consider when assessing whether their practices may be deemed as a dark pattern. In this blog post, we will provide a snapshot of the current EU legislation that regulates dark patterns as well as upcoming legislative updates that will regulate dark patterns alongside the current legal framework.Continue Reading The EU Stance on Dark Patterns