The Digital Fairness Act is the Commission’s next big consumer law, and it is due before the end of 2026. The 2026 work programme lists it as a legislative initiative for the fourth quarter, which leaves only the final weeks of the year for the proposal to land. Consumer groups and businesses are both preparing for what it could contain, and the debate will shape online shopping rules in all 27 member states for years.

Michael McGrath, the Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, repeated the timetable in May at a data protection conference in Dublin. He said the Commission is pursuing “an ambitious agenda of simplification and modernisation,” and he tied the Digital Fairness Act to that effort. The proposal aims to close gaps that existing consumer law leaves open.

The problems it targets are well known. According to the European Parliament’s legislative tracker, the Digital Fairness Act is expected to deal with dark patterns, which are deceptive interface designs that push people toward choices against their interest. It also covers addictive design, influencer marketing and what McGrath calls unfair personalisation, especially where a company exploits a consumer’s vulnerability for profit.

Parliament has pushed on this front for years. In a resolution of 12 December 2023 on addictive design of online services and consumer protection, MEPs asked the Commission to propose legislation and to close regulatory gaps, including those on dark patterns. The public consultation for the Digital Fairness Act closed on 24 October 2025, so the Commission has had a year to weigh the responses.

McGrath has stressed that the Digital Fairness Act is not designed to regulate particular types of online actors or technologies. That choice suggests a horizontal approach that follows the practice, not the platform. A rule against manipulative design would then apply to a shopping app, a video game and a streaming service alike, which should make it harder to avoid by changing business model.

The Digital Fairness Act also has a second goal that businesses will welcome. Simpler duties could cut legal costs for smaller firms that sell online. The Commission wants to streamline some obligations, including certain consumer information requirements, so the new rulebook should not simply add paperwork. How far that promise holds will become clear only when the legal text appears, and it is the part of the proposal most likely to attract lobbying.

The Digital Fairness Act will also arrive alongside other digital files. The Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on the Digital Omnibus on AI on 7 May 2026, and McGrath said the wider Digital Omnibus, which proposes changes to the GDPR, will likely enter trilogue this autumn. Companies will therefore face overlapping debates on data, AI and consumer law at the same time, and legal teams will have to track the new consumer rules next to the Digital Omnibus.

The Commission has not confirmed an exact date for the Digital Fairness Act, and the search for newer announcements turned up no change to the fourth-quarter schedule. Readers should watch the College agenda for the final weeks of 2026. A proposal published in December would leave the real fight over dark patterns, addictive design and personalisation to Parliament and the Council in 2027.