Privacy Enforcement, U.S. Laws & Regulations
The Digital Fairness Act and Privacy UX: Why Dark Patterns Are a Regulatory Priority
On 11 November, the European Commission is expected to formally present the Digital Fairness Act (DFA), a proposal European Commissioner for Democracy Michael McGrath has called “the missing piece of the puzzle in the EU’s digital rulebook.” Its goal is simple to state and hard to execute: clarify what is and isn’t allowed in the way businesses treat consumers online. For privacy and compliance teams, the timing matters.
The DFA is a consumer protection law rather than a privacy law. However, its targets, including manipulative interface design and personalization can put businesses in privacy compliance risks. In fact, dark patterns avoidance and privacy UX have moved from a talking point to a regulatory priority for businesses. Therefore, let’s have a look at what the DFA is expected to cover, why dark patterns are at its center, where it overlaps with existing rules, and what organizations can do now.
Key Areas of the Digital Fairness Act
The DFA was laid out early in this Commission’s mandate to close gaps in consumer rights and protection online, and it has been more than two years in the making. A public consultation last year drew calls for stronger platform accountability and transparency. McGrath’s latest statements indicate the scope has widened to include newer issues such as unfair ticketing for live events. Four core issues were originally expected to anchor the proposal:
- Dark patterns: Interface designs that steer, pressure or trick people into choices they might not otherwise make, such as a prominent “Accept all” button paired with a buried or multi-step “Reject.” The concept already appears in several EU laws, including the Digital Services Act, which prohibits practices that materially distort or impair users’ ability to make autonomous, informed choices. The DFA is expected to bring much-needed clarity to where the line sits.
- Addictive design: Features engineered to maximize time spent or repeat engagement, such as infinite scroll, autoplay or streak mechanics. The concern is that these patterns can undermine user autonomy, particularly for younger users, which is why the DFA will be negotiated alongside the EU Kids Act on minors online.
- Influencer marketing: Promotional content that blurs the line between a genuine recommendation and paid advertising. Clearer rules on disclosure and transparency would help consumers understand when they are being marketed to, and would raise the compliance bar for brands and the creators they work with.
- Problematic personalization: The use of data and profiling to tailor offers, prices or interfaces in ways that exploit consumer vulnerabilities. This is the most direct link to privacy, since personalization depends on personal data, and it raises a hard definitional question: how “vulnerability” will be defined, and whether too narrow a definition could create friction for companies that serve groups such as the elderly or people with disabilities.
Aligning Privacy and Consumer Protection with the DFA
Many of the areas that DFA addresses are already touched by the AI Act, the Digital Services Act and the 2011 Consumer Rights Directive, and the proposal will be negotiated in parallel with the EU Kids Act, since minors naturally overlap with the vulnerable-consumer categories the DFA targets. In short, consistency across these laws will be a major priority for EU lawmakers and businesses need to prepare accordingly.
1. Audit your digital interfaces: Review customer-facing interfaces, including consent banners, preference centers, subscription journeys, and data subject rights request forms, to identify design elements that could influence or undermine user decisions. Pay particular attention to asymmetric choices, preselected options, confusing language, hidden settings, and unnecessarily complicated opt-out processes.
2. Overlapping obligations: The Digital Fairness Act will enter an already complex EU regulatory landscape that includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Digital Services Act (DSA), and AI Act. Rather than treating each regulation as a separate compliance challenge, businesses should identify where their requirements overlap, particularly in areas such as transparency, consent management, automated decision-making, and consumer protection.
3. User preferences across systems: Obtaining consent or recording a user’s preferences is only the first step toward effective privacy governance. Businesses must also ensure that these decisions are accurately communicated to the systems, applications, and third-party services that collect, process, or share personal data.
4. Personalization and profiling: Businesses should evaluate how customer data, behavioral analytics, and AI-driven profiling influence the digital experiences they deliver. This includes reviewing personalized pricing, targeted promotions, product recommendations, and dynamically adjusted interfaces to determine whether these practices could manipulate consumer decisions or exploit vulnerabilities. Particular attention should be given to experiences involving minors, financially vulnerable consumers, and other potentially susceptible groups.
Preparing for the Digital Fairness Act requires businesses to go beyond policy updates and establish consistent, transparent, and accountable data practices. Truyo Privacy helps organizations manage consent and consumer preferences, streamline privacy rights requests, and maintain visibility into how personal data is collected and used. Meanwhile, Truyo Compliance Advisor helps businesses navigate evolving regulatory requirements, identify applicable obligations, and assess compliance gaps. Together, these solutions can help organizations strengthen their privacy governance frameworks and prepare for the EU’s evolving digital fairness requirements.
Fairer Digital Experience
The Digital Fairness Act is still a proposal, and its final shape will depend on months of negotiation over definitions, scope and how it fits with existing law. But the direction is already clear: regulators want digital experiences that are fair by design, and consent and rights-request interfaces are firmly in the frame. Privacy UX is no longer just about conversion rates or tidy banners; it is about earning and keeping user trust in a way that stands up to regulators. The first step is simple: take an honest look at how your consent and preference experiences feel to the person on the other side of the screen.
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October 28, 2026