Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life
After being leaked earlier this week, the European Commission has today presented its proposal for the ‘Digital Fairness Act’ — a rule update that aims to offer “better protection for consumers and fairer competition for businesses” in the games industry.
To be clear, the proposal has not been adopted by the EU Commission just yet, but if it does go through, it could have a huge impact on several hot-topic game mechanics like loot boxes, virtual currencies, pay-to-win options and more. What’s more, the act would apply to all EU member states without the need for individual approval.
So, what does the act set out to fix? The big notes that stand out to us appear in Article 15, which would require all companies offering “variable reward schemes” (or loot boxes, as you might know them) to be upfront about the items’ contents and the probabilities of unlocking them. It calls for a requirement to toggle these options off in an “easily accessible manner,” and no such items should appear in games designed for those under 18.
Likewise, Article 13 of the act prohibits personalised pricing based on user profiling — whether that profiling uncovers that the user is a minor, or if they are vulnerable to pricing practices in other ways due to their “age, credulity, disability, or any specific misfortune or circumstance of such gravity as to impair the consumer’s judgment”.
Article 14 is all about virtual currencies, and it stipulates that companies must disclose “their estimated monetary value in the currency” to all customers. Any virtual-currency-related purchases must be turned off by default for minors, it continues, and can only be switched back on by a parent or guardian.
The Digital Fairness Act also proposes clampdowns on pay-to-win mechanics in games played by those under 18, and disabling toggles for any mechanics based on “[encouraging] compulsive or excessive use,” like log-in bonuses and daily rewards.
Mechanics that fall under the umbrella of all the no-nos outlined above are subject to change, and the proposal states that the EU Commission will be able to add to the list at any time.
It’s a rather dense read, and we struggle to see how many of the proposed changes would actually work in practice — how can you turn off pay-to-win strategies for under-18s and still keep things fair when playing against adults? — but it would certainly pose quite a change to the games industry as we know it.
With the soaring popularity of the likes of Fortnite and Roblox, it’s only a matter of time before stronger unified regulations come into play. Whether those regulations end up looking like the Digital Fairness Act, and whether they actually protect customers, is another question entirely.
What do you make of the Digital Fairness Act? Let us know in the comments.
[source commission.europa.eu, via commission.europa.eu]
Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.