by 
The European Commission is readying new powers to impose fines on Big Tech companies that fail to protect consumers, particularly children, from online spending traps and manipulative design practices, according to the Financial Times. The planned Digital Fairness Act, expected to be tabled in late 2026, would target dark patterns, addictive design features, subscription traps, and unfair personalization practices that exploit consumer vulnerabilities for commercial purposes.
Meta Faces Reckoning Over “Addictive” Design
The consumer protection push comes as the Commission on July 10 issued preliminary findings that Meta is in breach of the Digital Services Act over the “addictive” design of Instagram and Facebook. The investigation focused on features including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommendation systems that the Commission said fuel compulsive use and shift users’ brains into “autopilot mode”.
The Commission called on Meta to disable autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introduce effective screen-time breaks, and modify its recommendation algorithm to reduce its focus on engagement. If the findings are confirmed, Meta faces a fine of up to 6% of its total global annual turnover. Meta now has the opportunity to review the evidence and submit a formal response.
Chat Control Revival Draws Durov’s Ire
Separately, the European Parliament on July 9 voted to reinstate Chat Control 1.0, a temporary derogation from EU privacy rules that allows platforms to voluntarily scan unencrypted private messages for child sexual abuse material until April 2028. Critics said the measure passed through a procedural loophole: after being rejected twice in March, a narrow vote using “urgent procedure” forced a second-reading revote that required 361 votes to block rather than a simple majority to pass.
Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov condemned the move, calling the EU a “banana republic” and accusing it of enabling warrantless surveillance of millions of conversations. Durov pledged that Telegram would not scan private messages regardless of the legislation. Privacy advocates noted that end-to-end encrypted services such as WhatsApp and Signal were explicitly exempted from the law’s scope.
Broader Crackdown Underway
The developments mark an intensifying week of EU regulatory action against the technology sector. On July 8, the EU General Court dismissed Apple’s challenge to its designation as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act, while on July 2, Europe’s top court upheld a €4.1 billion antitrust fine against Alphabet over Android. The forthcoming Digital Fairness Act would add another enforcement layer focused squarely on consumer harm and child safety online.
