Greater transparency on influencers' sponsored content and a ban on personalized advertising and higher prices targeted at minors and vulnerable consumers. These are some of the new provisions of the Digital Fairness Act (DFA), the regulation for online consumer protection presented by the European Commission. The proposal aims to make commercial content on social networks more recognizable. Influencers will be required to clearly indicate when they are paid to promote a product, without presenting advertising and sponsorships as recommendations or personal experiences.
Specifically, influencers will also not be able to promote products that are dangerous, prohibited by law, or presented as suitable for minors when they are not.
The obligations will also apply to brands and agencies, which will be required to verify creators' compliance with the rules. The DFA also addresses targeted advertising and personalized pricing. The bans already in place under the Digital Services Act (DSA) for online platforms, which prevent them from targeting minors with personalized advertising or advertising based on sensitive data, will be extended to all websites and apps. Furthermore, companies will not be able to offer higher personalized prices to minors and vulnerable consumers by exploiting their personal characteristics or circumstances.
Among the new provisions is the provision of greater user control over digital platform features that encourage excessive or compulsive use of online services. The proposal will allow consumers to disable certain features designed to keep users on the platforms, such as auto-playing videos and notifications not directly related to their activity.
Persistent reminders, which encourage repeated revisiting of digital services, are also targeted. The measure also aims to combat practices that encourage excessive or compulsive spending. Specifically, it prohibits minors from using gambling-like features, such as pay-to-win and pay-to-progress systems, which allow users to advance or gain advantages in games through payments.
(Unioneonline)