European Commission Proposes Loot Box and Virtual Currency Rules

The European Commission presented its proposed Digital Fairness Act on November 10, 2026, including real-money price disclosure for paid virtual currencies and restrictions on paid loot boxes, pay-to-win and pay-to-progress mechanics. Those minor-focused restrictions would apply to games directed at under-18s or known with reasonable certainty to be used by them.

The package is a legislative proposal, not an adopted regulation, and will now be discussed by the European Parliament and Council. It defines a minor as anyone under 18 and uses the same targeting-or-knowledge test for several game-specific protections.

Under the proposal text, the monetary value of a virtual-currency purchase would have to be shown prominently, clearly and comprehensibly in the currency used to buy that virtual currency. If a direct value cannot be determined, an estimate can use the full amount the consumer would have to pay, directly or through another virtual currency, without quantity discounts or promotional offers. Loyalty-programme points are excluded from the virtual-currency definition.

Paid virtual currencies would also be disabled by default for products meeting the minors test, with activation requiring prior approval from a parent or guardian. PEGI or comparable age ratings, customer-account information and objective marketing indicators can help establish that status, and traders would not need to collect additional personal data solely for the assessment.

Paid Random Rewards and Progression Pressure

The draft uses the term paid-for variable reward systems for virtual items offering random rewards or variable odds, expressly covering loot boxes, wheels of fortune and collectible card packs. Players would receive clear, prominent disclosure of the product types available and the probabilities of obtaining them, as well as simple, accessible tools to disable these systems.

Where the minors test is met, those paid systems could not be made available at all. The restrictions therefore distinguish between transparency and opt-out tools for the general audience and a prohibition for the covered under-18 audience.

Separate provisions define pay-to-progress and pay-to-win mechanisms as purchases necessary, or presented as necessary, for in-game or in-app progress or success. The draft’s examples include artificial difficulty barriers, progression speeds that make the unpaid path illusory and competitive structures in which spending effectively determines outcomes. Those paid mechanisms would also be unavailable where the minors test applies.

Wider Design Rules and Direct Enforcement

The game-specific measures sit within broader rules for online interfaces and contracts. The proposal bans dark patterns that materially distort consumer decisions, with always-prohibited examples including false scarcity claims, shaming users for rejecting choices beneficial to the business and pre-selected paid options. Adults could switch off addictive features intended or reasonably foreseen to encourage compulsive or excessive use.

Digital subscriptions would carry reminders before free trials convert or paid contracts automatically renew, active confirmation before a trial becomes paid, an online cancellation facility and access to human customer service when other means are ineffective.

The package also contains simplification measures for businesses. It lightens mandatory pre-contractual information for repeated microtransactions with the same company, while the Digital Fairness Act would convert the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive into a directly applicable regulation replacing 27 national transposing regimes.

A companion Consumer Protection Cooperation revision would let the Commission directly investigate and fine large-scale cases, rather than only facilitate coordination among national consumer authorities. The Commission’s Q&A sets the threshold for direct intervention at likely effects in at least two-thirds of EU member states representing at least two-thirds of the EU population. The company involved could not be a small or medium-sized enterprise, and national authorities would stop investigating the same case if the Commission opened proceedings.

The Commission could fine a company up to 6% of its worldwide annual turnover in such cases. Separately, the Commission estimates that the broader consumer package could save EU consumers up to €13.7 billion a year, a projection covering the package as a whole rather than the games business specifically.

Presenting the package in remarks with Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, Commissioner Michael McGrath said existing rules were developed before e-commerce, the attention economy and sophisticated personal-data use. He distinguished the proposal’s aim from a general obstacle to business:

“We are not making it harder to do business. We are making it harder to do business unfairly.”

The draft applies to traders targeting EU consumers even when they are established outside the EU. For non-EU publishers, the package therefore pairs a single directly applicable rulebook with a proposed EU legal-representative requirement and potential direct Commission enforcement in qualifying cross-border cases.