Europe may make loot boxes something every player can turn off, if the final Digital Fairness Act keeps what a leaked draft says. French outlet Contexte published the draft before the European Commission’s planned presentation on Wednesday 11 November, so nothing here is official yet.
The act is aimed at online tricks that push people to spend, and games are only one target.
According to Contexte’s copy of the document, it would convert the EU’s misleading-practices directive into a regulation, ban deceptive interface designs, define who counts as an influencer and prohibit ads targeted with sensitive personal data. Breaches could cost up to 6% of a company’s worldwide turnover. Consumer commissioner Michael McGrath has been preparing it since late 2024.
The gaming rules come from lines quoted out of the draft. Any player could switch off offers built on chance, and loot boxes would have to disclose the odds. Virtual-currency purchases would have to show their real-money value. For under-18s some pressure tactics would be banned and the rest would default to off, including pay-to-progress and pay-to-win mechanics where a game is aimed at children or the seller is reasonably sure they play it.
The draft’s own reasoning on children is blunt: “It may be difficult for minors to resist such perceived pressure to pay,” it says of progression-linked purchases.
The draft also leans on age ratings. It backs a legal duty for games to carry one, and a rating below 18, PEGI 16 for instance, would be treated as a reasonable sign that minors are playing, which triggers the rules above.
PEGI has been moving the same way: this year it changed its criteria so games with loot-box style systems rate higher, and EA Sports FC, once routinely PEGI 3, now receives PEGI 16 for its Ultimate Team packs. The rules would apply to companies selling to EU consumers.
Subscriptions and influencer marketing are covered as well. The leaked text appears to target sign-up flows that are easy to enter and hard to cancel, and pricing that hides the real cost until a buyer is deep in the checkout. The same draft makes brands and agencies answerable for influencers who do not follow the rules, which matters for the game promotions that run on creators’ channels.
Draft texts change before they become law. One explainer site’s timeline points to adoption in late 2027 and wider application by 2030. The Commission’s official publication on 11 November will show which of these provisions it kept.
