Paper Calls for Digital Fairness Act to Regulate Agentic AI

By James Tamim - 04/08/2025

DFA should consider agentic AI, consultation signals & extension, public feedback surge, early policy intelligence, hiring, and essential reads.

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Christoph Busch’s Paper: Making the DFA “Agent-Ready”

Christoph Busch’s new paper frames agentic AI as the blind spot the Digital Fairness Act cannot afford. If the DFA is drafted without explicitly accounting for autonomous multi-step AI agents, it risks being outdated on arrival.

Busch’s central prescription is not simply more rules, but adaptation: existing consumer law must be retooled so it works when machines, not humans, execute transactions. He argues that the DFA should:

  • Explicitly bring agentic AI into scope so the Act does not assume a human is always the direct decision-maker.

  • Mandate “agent-friendly” but protective interfaces: standard APIs (not just human buttons) for purchases, cancellations, withdrawals, with built-in confirmation/consent signals that keep the consumer in control without breaking automation.

  • Embed consumer protection by design for agents: require agents to surface their actions, allow human override, log decision rationales, and constrain goal-pursuit to prevent them becoming “manipulation engines.”

  • Update fairness and transparency tests to account for agents—clarify how the average consumer benchmark applies when an AI acts and ensure existing transparency rules cover both manipulation by and of agents.

  • Guard against new vulnerabilities: impose resilience requirements to defend agents from adversarial hijacking and ensure agents themselves do not exploit behavioural asymmetries.

DFA Consultation Questionnaire as Policy Signal

Emanuele Francesco Pirozzi points out that the consultation isn’t just soliciting input, it’s already signalling core structural choices. It foregrounds the legal-form question (Directive vs. Regulation) in Section 8, Question 7. More substantively, the questionnaire lays out several concrete policy elements: a “fairness-by-design” obligation, possible reversal of the burden of proof where asymmetries hinder consumers or enforcement, a revised definition of “consumer”, calibrated targeting of vulnerabilities, and mandatory age verification/estimation to ensure both protection and accessibility for minors.

Already Over 3000 Feedback Submissions

The written feedback portal is already showing over 3000 submissions, mostly from EU citizens, a clear signal that public attention is active and noise around the DFA is already forming. The number of respondents to the formal questionnaire isn’t publicly disclosed, but it’s likely similarly high given the visible engagement. What’s notable is that this surge isn’t just coming from typical stakeholder channels.

Gaming communities have taken an interest, even spawning memes on Reddit and YouTube videos, most notably from Youtuber Ross Scott aka Accursed Farms of the Stop Killing Games movement that helped mobilise responses from players. The most popular demand from gamers is that the Commission prevent video game publishers from permanently disabling video games they have already sold. This was not expected to be within the scope of the Digital Fairness Act, but if enough pressure is placed on the Commission, it could be included in the official proposal.

Feedback Period Extended

The public consultation feedback period for the Digital Fairness Act has been extended: it now runs until 24 October 2025 (previously 9 October).

Broader DFA Conversation

Two early readouts outline where the DFA debate is sharpening, one on how it will be operationalised, the other on what it must define clearly to be enforceable:

  • Freshfields – Draws attention to the rising policy prioritisation of minors’ safety (including national pressure like France and Norway) and the granular treatment of influencer marketing (e.g., retouched images disclosures). Reports the launch of Implementation Dialogues (first held 15 July 2025) as a new tool to test stakeholder buy-in and alignment across existing consumer law frameworks. Also surfaces the DFA’s dual ambition of simplification and interoperability with digital identity infrastructure.

  • Osborne Clarke – Flags that “dark patterns” lack a clean legal definition, making enforcement opaque, and urges the DFA to enable a differentiated approach: identify which interface practices need bespoke rules versus better application of existing instruments. Highlights structural enforcement gaps (intent + harm thresholds) and the risk that current actions against dark patterns are hidden inside other compliance cases unless the DFA builds clarity and tracking.

  • ERA Annual Conference on European Consumer Law (Trier, 9–10 October 2025) – The programme includes a roundtable at 16:00 on 9 October titled “The big bet on achieving digital fairness for consumers – towards the Digital Fairness Act”, with Urs Buscke (BEUC), Monika Namysłowska (University of Łódź), Anna Sophia Oberschelp de Meneses (Covington & Burling), and Martins Prieditis (DG JUST).

Work at DIGITALEUROPE on the DFA

DIGITALEUROPE is recruiting a Policy Officer for Data Economy with a clear mandate that includes the Digital Fairness Act (alongside copyright and AI intersections). It’s a chance to shape industry positions, drive engagement with EU institutions, and feed into DIGITALEUROPE’s 2030 manifesto at a critical inflection point. Ideal candidates will have EU digital policy experience, strong advocacy skillset, and comfort translating DFA complexity for member alignment; familiarity with consumer protection issues under the DFA is a plus. Applications (CV + motivation) are due by the end of 4 August 2025, with the role available immediately.

Foundational Reads for the DFA

I curated the following books because they offer real insight for people engaging with the Digital Fairness Act, whether you’re drafting policy, advising stakeholders, building compliant products, or just trying to understand its contours.

Timeline section

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