Digital Fairness Act Timeline

The Digital Fairness Act (DFA) is the EU’s planned flagship law to tackle unfair online practices, including dark patterns, addictive design, misleading influencer marketing, and unfair personalisation that exploits consumer vulnerabilities, especially minors. It will build on existing EU consumer law (UCPD, CRD, UCTD) to close remaining protection gaps in the digital environment.

This page provides a chronological timeline of the Digital Fairness Act, from the first reference in the 2020 New Consumer Agenda to the Digital Fairness Fitness Check, Parliament’s own-initiative reports and the 2025 DFA public consultation. The “At a Glance” section summarises the key milestones and expected legislative calendar, while the detailed timeline below offers short notes on each event. It is designed as a living reference for anyone following the evolution of the EU Digital Fairness Act, online consumer protection and EU rules on dark patterns and addictive design.

At A Glance

Detailed Timeline

26 Nov 2025 – European Parliament adopts “Protection of minors online” report (2025/2060(INI))
Parliament adopts Protection of minors online report. It sets out political priorities on age limits, addictive design and protection of minors online, explicitly inviting the Commission to address these issues in the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.

19 Nov 2025 – 2030 Consumer Agenda confirms DFA as a flagship initiative
The Commission presents the 2030 Consumer Agenda, which explicitly lists a forthcoming Digital Fairness Act as a key initiative to address “outstanding unfair and deceptive consumer practices” and to close remaining online protection gaps. Briefings on the 2026 Work Programme and commentaries on the Strategy point to a proposal planned for Q4 2026.

17 Jul 2025 – Commission starts DFA public consultation + call for evidence
The Commission officially launches the Digital Fairness Act public consultation and call for evidence, with a deadline of 24 October 2025 (extended from an initial deadline of 9 October). The consultation is framed as preparing an EU-level law to address dark patterns, addictive designs, influencer marketing and unfair personalisation. Citizens, authorities and stakeholders submit responses via the public consultation and call for evidence.

17 Sept 2024 – Mission letter to Commissioner McGrath
In his mission letter, President von der Leyen explicitly tasks Commissioner-designate Michael McGrath with developing a “Digital Fairness Act” to tackle unethical techniques such as dark patterns, addictive design, influencer marketing and online profiling, especially when vulnerabilities are exploited.

3 Oct 2024 – Fitness Check conclusions published
The Commission publishes the Staff Working Document – Fitness Check of EU consumer law on digital fairness (SWD(2024) 230). It concludes that the directives (UCPD, CRD, and UCTD) remain necessary but identifies harmful, evolving online practices and gaps that need to be addressed “to achieve digital fairness”. This document is the core evidence base for the Digital Fairness Act.

12 Dec 2023 – European Parliament adopts “Addictive design of online services and consumer protection in the EU single market” resolution (2023/2043(INI))
Parliament adopts its own-initiative resolution on addictive design, urging the Commission to propose EU legislation against addictive design and dark patterns and to use the Digital Fairness Fitness Check to close remaining gaps in consumer protection online.

30 Nov 2023 – 3rd Annual Digital Consumer Event
At the 3rd Annual Digital Consumer Event in 2023, the Commission tests Fitness Check findings with stakeholders (dark patterns, addictive design, burden of proof etc.), feeding directly into the DFA evidence base.

17 May 2022 – Commission starts Digital Fairness Fitness Check public consultation + call for evidence
DG JUST run a Fitness Check of EU consumer law on digital fairness to assess whether the UCPD, CRD, and UCTD are still fit for purpose in the digital environment, including a roadmap/call for evidence and public consultation. The Fitness Check call for evidence runs from 17 May 2022 to 14 June 2022. The Fitness Check public consultation runs from 28 November 2022 to 20 February 2023.

13 Nov 2020 – New Consumer Agenda (2020–2025)
The Commission’s New Consumer Agenda (COM(2020) 696) announces that it will analyse whether additional legislation is needed to ensure “equal fairness online and offline”; this is the political starting gun for the later Digital Fairness Act (DFA).