An alleged draft of the potentially game-changing Digital Fairness Act has leaked ahead of its scheduled publication tomorrow (11th November), containing proposals that could dramatically affect the way games operate and are monetised within the European Union.

The draft, published by French publication Contexte (via Video Games Industry Memo) goes as far as to recommend that loot boxes (uncertainty-based rewards) be turned off by default for minors, as well as the sale of in-game items and currencies. There’s also a recommendation that all players – not just minors – should be able to turn off offers related to these lootboxes and gambling mechanics.

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“The digital era has fundamentally transformed consumer experiences,” the draft of the Digital Fairness Act begins. “It has enabled faster, more convenient and wider access to an ever-increasing range of goods and services. At the same time, it has given rise to new and more sophisticated ways of influencing consumers’ choices.

“Along with the indisputable benefits in choice and efficiency, the extensive use of digital technologies allows both old and new unfair commercial practices to affect consumers at scale, exacerbating risks to their economic interests, as well as to their mental and physical wellbeing. Vulnerable consumers are particularly affected.”

The Digital Fairness Act calls for greater transparency around a “transactional decision”. Which means: “Price transparency on the real value of in-app purchases using virtual currencies and the probabilities of winning for virtual offers with uncertainty-based rewards (loot boxes).

“All consumers can turn off virtual offers with uncertainty-based rewards. Some spending-maximising practices prohibited for minors, with the remaining turned off by default. Supporting self-regulation for video games and legal obligation for video games to have an age-appropriate rating. All consumers can turn off attention-maximising features, with some prohibited for minors and the remaining turned off by default.”

“It may be difficult for minors to resist such perceived pressure to pay” -Digital Fairness Act (alleged draft)

“Spending-maximising” refers to systems that pressure us to spend more money than we want to, such as reward systems or pay-to-progress or pay-to-win systems. They’re all being targeted here, as is virtual currency, which provides a layer of abstraction as to the real cost of goods.

“It may be difficult for minors to resist such perceived pressure to pay,” the Digital Fairness Act said with regard to progression-linked systems. “Therefore, where a product is directed at minors or when the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that the product is used by minors, pay-to-progress or pay-to-win mechanisms […] should not be made available to minors.”

The Digital Fairness Act is a forthcoming European legislative proposal designed to update consumer protection rules for various digital dangers that we face today. Importantly, it’s not law yet, and it has iterations and discussions to go through before it will be. A timeline on the Digital Fairness Act explainer website suggests it could be adopted late in 2027, then applied more broadly by 2030.

It’s also hoping to tackle many things besides shady video game monetisation, including “problematic” influencer marketing, “unfair” pricing practices – such as obscuring the real cost of something until you’ve progressed through layers trying to buy it – and mysterious-sounding “dark patterns”. These relate to ‘easy to sign-up, hard-to-cancel’ processes, it seems.

These changes aren’t happening in a vacuum. Earlier this year, the well-known European age-rating body PEGI announced historic alterations to its game-rating criteria, with an eye to better categorising the dangers of loot box-containing games and aggressively monetised games. These changes have already started to roll out and mean that a game like EA Sports FC, which was previously routinely rated PEGI 3, now automatically gets a PEGI 16 rating because of its Ultimate Team card pack (loot box) system.

The effect of the Digital Fairness Act could tip the balance against these systems being included in games at all. Expect more discussion and digestion of the proposed changes as the Act is officially published tomorrow.