- “This will be a key legislative initiative for next year for the European Commission, as reflected in the letter of intent that president von der Leyen sent to this Parliament following the state of the Union address and in the Commission Work Programme for 2026. We recently concluded the three month public consultation. We were very pleased to have a very high participation by stakeholders and the preparatory work is now fully underway. Protecting the youngest in our society will, of course, be a key priority for the DFA. In this regard, we have followed very closely and warmly welcomed the work that's being done. Uh, in view of the Parliament's own initiative report on the protection of minors online, and indeed, several of the issues that are currently highlighted in this report's text are precisely issues that we are assessing as part of the impact assessment for the Digital Fairness Act. As this next slide shows, these issues concern dark patterns. These are features in the design of websites and applications that may lead consumers to take decisions that they otherwise may not take. Addictive design features that seek to make consumers. It's the previous slide, if I may. Yes. So addictive design features that seek to keep consumers spending time and money online more than they intend to. And these are, of course, features that are particularly, um, sensitive when it comes to children.”
EU rules on digital competition · Privacy & digital economy · Safety features & content control for child protection online
- “Indeed. Thank you very much, chair. And let me start by joining previous speakers and sincerely thanking the Imco and the committees for organizing today's hearing. Uh, as my colleague from DG connect outlined already in the previous panel, on the commission side, we fully share the Parliament's commitment in shaping a digital environment where children can explore, can learn, can connect safely while ensuring that their rights are being effectively protected. Uh, we also fully share the sense of urgency when it comes to filling in remaining gaps in EU legislation and addressing areas where legal uncertainty persists. So in this regard, we feel that strengthening the horizontal safety net of consumer protection legislation, one that I should recall applies to all companies, irrespective of the technology they are using, irrespective of the business model. This, in our view, is an important piece of the puzzle. Last October, the Commission published the results of a thorough digital fairness fitness check of our consumer protection legislation. That fitness check showed that problems in the digital environment still exist, and these problems are costing European consumers time and money close to €8 billion per year. It is worth noting that while the fitness check did not focus specifically on minors, it indicated that the biggest detriment is indeed suffered by younger consumers who reported facing problems in 73% of the cases, more so than any other age group that we looked into. So based on the findings of the fitness check, the commission is now working on a digital fairness Act to tackle outstanding, problematic and deceptive online practices.”
Safety features & content control for child protection online · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · Privacy & digital economy
- “This should be a prohibited practice. Um, then, uh, on the question of chatbots as well, I should point out that we have instruments such as the AI act, such as the General Product Safety Regulation. That also applies. So we need to see where gaps really exist. I promise five points that I will be very quick. Third point, when it comes to big players, big platforms, of course we're not waiting for new laws. We have a framework already in place. My colleagues from connect mentioned enforcement actions that are currently underway precisely against these big players under the DSA framework. On the consumer law side, we are also reflecting on whether we need to update and how our consumer protection cooperation Uh, regulation precisely to ensure more rigorous enforcement. And in the area of video games, this indeed is an issue that we are paying particular attention to under the Digital Fairness Act. The Consumer Protection Cooperation um network has already produced a series of principles that apply to video games. And these uh, again, apply to video games, irrespective of whether they are provided through a platform, through a console or other means. So we will be looking at these unfair practices as part of the impact assessment moving forward. Thank you.”
EU restrictions on unfair commercial practices · EU rules on digital competition
- “Thank you very much Chair, thank you Prabhat. I would like to start, of course, by echoing the words of my colleague in welcoming the strong engagement of the European Parliament on the protection of minors online and the intense work by the rapporteur and by the members of this committee on this own initiative report. We on the Commission's side are indeed committed to ensuring that all children in the EU benefit from a high level of protection online. Many references were made today to the upcoming Digital Fairness Act. This is indeed one of the key priorities for the Commission for the next year, as indicated by President von der Leyen in her letter of intent to the European Parliament following the State of the Union address. It will cover specific and clearly identified gaps in our consumer protection rules in the online environment. This includes dark patterns, addictive design features, including problematic features in video games. Many references were made today to issues such as loot boxes and gambling-like features. These are indeed aspects we are looking at in the context of the DFA. We are also looking into unfair influencer marketing and unfair personalization practices when consumers' vulnerabilities are exploited for commercial purposes. Now, the protection of minors will be a transversal and key element for the Digital Fairness Act. The impact assessment will specifically address whether higher protection is needed for children as young consumers in all the areas that I just mentioned. There was a lot of discussion today around age verification and minimum age of majority. As just explained, there is a panel, an expert panel process that is led by our colleagues in DG Connect. We are, of course, contributing and following closely also from the side of DG Justice and the development of the Digital Fairness Act. What other aspects that we are evaluating is whether certain functionalities should be disabled by default or if parents should have greater control over certain features in websites, applications, and products that are addressed to minors. We're also considering whether it's necessary to extend some of the prohibitions currently contained in other pieces of legislation, such as on targeted advertising towards minors under the Digital Services Act, to cover other categories of traders. So we appreciate a lot the calls for the Digital Fairness Act to address these remaining gaps in consumer protection, particularly with regard to minors, both in the draft report, across numerous amendments, and of course in the room here today. We also appreciate the clear call for revision of the CPC regulation. Stronger enforcement was mentioned and this is indeed a priority we fully share. We have also heard very clearly calls for caution and proportionality. We want to make sure that in our proposals we ensure not only robust protection for minors online but also simpler, clearer rules and a level playing field for business in the Digital Single Market. We have a call for evidence and public consultation that is currently running on the DFA until the twenty-fourth of October. That is exactly one month from today, so please encourage your constituents to contribute and we will, of course, be analyzing the input thoroughly in the impact assessment process. Thank you very much.”
Privacy & digital economy · Safety features & content control for child protection online · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards
- “Thank you very much. Uh, also, from the perspective of consumer protection and safeguarding the rights of children, we would like to warmly welcome this draft report and sincerely thank the rapporteur and her team for the hard work and for their commitment to addressing the protection of minors online. Commissioner McGrath as Executive Vice President and fully share your sense of urgency. This sense of urgency pertains both, as identified in the report, to enforcement of our existing rules, and this includes strengthened enforcement through our consumer protection cooperation framework, but also addressing, uh, gaps in areas of legal uncertainty in our EU legislation. The challenges that are identified in the report are very much aligned with the findings of our recent fitness check of EU Consumer Law on Digital fairness, uh, dark patterns, addictive design features, problematic features in video games, targeted advertising influencer marketing will indeed be amongst the core issues that we will be looking at in the scope of the Digital Fairness Act. This is also in line with the call by the European Parliament in your recent resolution for the Digital Fairness Act of 8th May, of which we have taken careful note now, these problematic practices. As we have said many times, affect us all as consumers. But minors are particularly sensitive, particularly susceptible to these practices. The harm can be more serious.”
EU restrictions on unfair commercial practices · Privacy & digital economy · Safety features & content control for child protection online
- “Uh, unfair personalization practices that exploit consumers vulnerabilities, problems with influencer marketing, and issues with digital contracts and subscriptions. Now, I should stress, and this was also mentioned in the previous panel, that these practices are affecting us all and indeed the Digital Fairness Act will seek to address them to the appropriate extent for all consumers. However, minors are particularly susceptible to such practices. The harm can be more serious. So what we are doing right now is to assess if the bar needs to be higher with regard to each of these practices when we are regulating for younger consumers. The Digital Fairness Act is part of a bigger puzzle of measures that the Commission is currently pursuing. Some of them were mentioned in the previous panel. One element that we are very mindful of is not to reopen or duplicate elements that have been recently addressed through legislation, such as the Digital Services Act. And of course, just as this European Parliament, we also share the objective of simplification. So we will be looking into options of making our rules clearer, simpler and easier to enforce also in the online environment. This, of course, should not come to the cost of consumer protection and for sure not minors protection. I will now pass the floor to my colleague Denisa to run you through some of these elements in greater detail, and we can move to the next slide.”
EU restrictions on unfair commercial practices · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards · Simplification measures (political compass)
- “Thank you very much, chair. And thank you to all the honourable members who intervened. As always, there are so many interesting insights. I will try to to react to five key points that I think came up in several of the interventions. First of all, to recall that indeed protection of minors is a multifaceted issue. We focused our intervention in this panel on the Digital Fairness Act as we as it was requested. But there are many other work strands that are precisely aiming to address other aspects that came up in the discussion today, be it the IDSA guidelines on the Protection of Minors that will guide the enforcement of the Digital Services Act, be it the panel of experts on the impact of social media on on minors that would look also into broader, uh, questions, uh, such as mental health questions and so on. Uh, be it the cyberbullying action plan that will focus specifically on the issue of harassment and so on, that, uh, many honourable members raised, uh, second point, the Digital Fairness Act is indeed, um, an instrument of, uh, horizontal, uh, consumer law. That means, in principle, uh, we cover, uh, all types of business to consumer products, services. It covers all types of traders, irrespective of, uh, the business model or the technology that is used. So if a practice is designated as unfair, whether this practice is applied through a chatbot or other means should actually not matter.”
EU restrictions on unfair commercial practices · Safety features & content control for child protection online · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards
- “So our job with the Digital Fairness Act will be precisely to look where the bar needs to be higher when we are regulating for young consumers. Um, the Digital Fairness Act, as has just been outlined, is only one part of the commission's broader efforts in better protecting minors online. With your support, it can strengthen the vital safety net of consumer law, which applies to all traders, to all companies, irrespective of technology or business model. The rapporteur and several of the honourable members that have taken the floor today have emphasized the need to ensure a level playing field. To make sure that protection rules apply not only to platforms but also to other traders. Video games were mentioned. Streaming services were mentioned. The Digital Fairness Act is precisely an opportunity to ensure that in a targeted manner, through a new binding rules. As we have said many times, the Commission is determined to ensure that there will be no duplication and full complementarity with already with the already existing digital rulebooks. That of course, includes, notably the Digital Services Act. We will also seek actively simplification and burden reduction opportunities while ensuring that these do not come, of course, at the cost of a high level of protection for minors. Thank you so much.”
EU restrictions on unfair commercial practices · Safety features & content control for child protection online · EU competences on consumer protection and product standards