A broad coalition of 86 consumer protection and digital rights organisations and 116 individual signatories has published a joint call urging the European Commission to develop an ambitious Digital Fairness Act (DFA). The signatories, including AK EUROPA, argue that while recent EU legislation such as the Digital Services Act and the AI Act have made important strides, they are not sufficient to address the full range of harmful commercial practices that have become embedded in digital business models, from dark patterns and addictive design to unfair personalisation and manipulative influencer marketing.

The coalition calls on the Commission to use the DFA to meaningfully update horizontal EU consumer law, closing legal gaps that have accumulated since the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive was adopted over two decades ago. Crucially, the signatories push back against the framing of simplification as deregulation: clearer, stronger rules, they argue, benefit both consumers and businesses by increasing legal certainty and supporting fair competition. With World Consumer Rights Day on 15 March, the call is a timely reminder that digital fairness is a precondition for a functioning Single Market.