The European Union’s upcoming Digital Fairness Act (DFA) is creating a big debate in the gaming community. What started as a plan to protect players from unfair or manipulative game designs has now turned into a major discussion.
The Act’s new rules, especially those focusing on in-game currencies and reward systems, could completely change how games are developed, played, and monetized in Europe.
EU regulators plan to treat in-game currencies like financial transactions
The Digital Fairness Act (DFA), introduced by the European Commission, is meant to protect players from what it describes as “addictive, unsafe, and manipulative design” in digital products, including video games. Its main goal is to stop unfair systems like loot boxes, hidden charges, and confusing in-game currencies that hide real-world spending.
To make gaming more transparent, the Act plans to treat in-game currencies like real money. For example, every time a player buys or spends gems, coins, or any in-game currency, it could work just like a real-world purchase, complete with confirmation screens, which happens only when we do real-world money transactions.
While this sounds good for safety, there is fear that it could break the natural flow of games and make simple actions feel like constant payments. In a worst-case scenario, players might even start to believe they can earn real money just by playing.
There is fear that the Act could disrupt Europe’s gaming success and growth
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen took to LinkedIn to share his dissatisfaction, stating that these new rules could damage one of Europe’s biggest tech success stories. He argued that treating every in-game token use as a financial transaction would ruin gameplay flow, comparing it to forcing families at a theme park to sign a contract for every ride.
He adds: “To dismantle these mechanics in the name of protecting consumers represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern digital entertainment works. The regulations would worsen the player experience without improving protections, and would cause widespread collateral damage to one of Europe’s biggest technology success stories.”
The European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) and Video Games Europe expressed the same sentiments as Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen. EGDF shared that “changes to the operational logic of in-game currencies would seriously weaken the performance of the European mobile games industry and jeopardise its future growth.”
Video Games Europe took a more balanced stance, expressing the shared vision for the EU’s goal of fairness while noting that “transparent and fair purchases of in-game content” is already in practice with the updated PEGI Code of Conduct.
“We hope EU regulators will work with us on the upcoming DFA, recognise the self- and co-regulation role of PEGI when proposing new regulations, and consider the commitments the industry has already put in place, to ensure that consumer protection and innovation can advance together,” they concluded.
With the EU likely to finalize the proposal by mid-2026, the Digital Fairness Act could become one of the most influential laws for Europe’s gaming industry. A public consultation is due in the coming weeks.
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