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The EU Digital Fairness Act: What a Proposed Law Could Mean for Influencer Marketing Disclosure
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The European Commission has signalled a forthcoming Digital Fairness Act that explicitly names "misleading marketing by influencers" alongside dark patterns, addictive design and unfair personalisation as problems it aims to solve — but as of writing it is only a proposal, not law. The Commission expects to table draft legislation in 2026, and even with political agreement, binding national implementation is realistically years away. This article covers where the initiative comes from, its full timeline, and what could actually change for influencer marketing disclosure — versus what already applies today.
The European Commission has announced it will table a Digital Fairness Act during 2026. The Commission's own review of EU consumer law — the "Fitness Check", published 3 October 2024 — explicitly names "misleading marketing by influencers" as one of the problems the forthcoming law is meant to address, alongside dark patterns, addictive design and unfair personalisation. But no draft legal text exists yet. This is a proposal under preparation, not current law, and that doesn't change the fact that Markedsføringsloven and the EU's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) are what actually govern influencer disclosure today — see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU for the rules that genuinely have to be followed right now.
The Digital Fairness Act didn't appear out of nowhere. It's the outcome of a multi-year process the European Commission has documented itself:
Several independent sources report that the Commission's own Fitness Check estimated the financial harm to EU consumers from this type of practice at at least EUR 7.9 billion per year, and that 97% of the most-visited websites and apps used by EU consumers deploy at least one dark pattern. Neither figure was independently verified directly in the Commission's own text for this article, but both appear consistently across multiple independent legal analyses of the same Fitness Check — they're presented here as reported Commission findings, not as a primary source this article read word for word.
| Problem area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Dark patterns | Manipulative design that pressures a choice — false urgency, hidden opt-outs, hard-to-cancel subscriptions |
| Addictive design | Features built to maximise screen time over user interest — infinite scroll, reward loops |
| Unfair personalisation | Targeting that exploits a consumer's vulnerabilities or behavioural patterns to push a purchase through |
| Misleading marketing by influencers | Hidden advertising, and — per the Commission's own statements — promotion of potentially harmful products (e.g. dietary supplements or cosmetic procedures) and unrealistic beauty standards |
| Protection of minors | A recurring focus across the whole initiative, per the Commission's own 2030 Consumer Agenda |
| When | What happens | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 17 May 2022 | Fitness Check of three consumer directives launched | Confirmed |
| 3 October 2024 | Commission publishes its conclusions, naming influencer marketing directly | Confirmed |
| July–October 2025 | Public consultation on the forthcoming initiative | Reported, not independently verified here |
| 19 November 2025 | 2030 Consumer Agenda adopted, confirms digital fairness as a priority | Confirmed |
| 2026 (the Commission itself says "in 2026"; several legal trackers point to Q4) | Expected legislative proposal from the Commission | Expected, no fixed date |
| 2026–2027 | Negotiation between the European Parliament and the Council | Speculative — an ordinary EU legislative process typically takes 1-2+ years |
| 2028-2029 at the earliest | Binding national implementation, if the law is adopted | Speculative |
This timeline can change. A proposal that doesn't exist yet can be delayed, reshaped, or dropped entirely — it has happened to other EU initiatives before. Treat the above as the best available picture at the time of research (25 August 2026), not a guarantee.
The short answer is: we don't know yet, because there's no draft text to read. But it's possible to compare what already applies today with what the Commission itself has flagged as problems the forthcoming law is meant to address:
| Area | Current law | What the Digital Fairness Act could add |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden advertising | Already banned today under Markedsføringsloven § 6(4) and the UCPD — see influencer marketing disclosure rules | Possibly stricter, EU-harmonised rules that name influencer marketing specifically, rather than deriving the rule generically from the UCPD's ban on misleading omissions |
| The platform's role | DSA Article 26(2) already requires platforms to let creators declare commercial content themselves — see the EU DSA's ad transparency rules | Unclear — the Commission's own texts don't specify whether the DFA would change platform obligations or sit alongside the DSA |
| Harmful product categories | Regulated product by product today (alcohol, finance and pharma each carry their own extra rules) | The Commission explicitly names dietary supplements and cosmetic procedures as examples of "potentially harmful products" promoted by influencers — a possible new, cross-cutting category |
| Protection of minors | A heightened clarity requirement already applies to content aimed at under-18s, plus Denmark's own rules on marketing to children and teenagers | Highlighted as a recurring theme across the entire 2030 Consumer Agenda — likely the area that gets the most attention in any future draft |
IF you already comply with disclosure rules correctly today → there's nothing to act on right now. Watch for the Commission's proposal when it lands in 2026, but wait until actual legal text exists before changing practice.
IF your campaigns target children and teenagers → this is explicitly the area the Commission itself emphasises most. It's already smart to be extra conservative here today, independent of the Digital Fairness Act — see marketing to children and teenagers through influencers for the Danish rules that already apply.
IF you promote dietary supplements, cosmetic procedures or similar borderline products → the Commission has named this directly as an example of what the law is meant to address. Worth watching closely, without implying anything is banned today that wasn't already.
IF anyone — a partner, an agency, another creator — claims "new EU rules require X" citing the Digital Fairness Act → that isn't accurate yet. No draft text exists, and nothing is binding until Parliament and the Council have finished negotiating a text and member states have implemented it.
In our experience, the practical risk for most brands and creators isn't future EU law that doesn't exist yet — it's non-compliance with the rules already in force today. Most of the practices the Digital Fairness Act names as problems (hidden advertising, misleading product claims) are already illegal under Markedsføringsloven and the UCPD. If your disclosure practice is already sound today, we don't expect the Digital Fairness Act to be a revolution for you — it's more likely to be a tightening and an EU-wide harmonisation of something already prohibited than an entirely new category of rules. The one area we'd watch closely on the Digital Fairness Act's behalf is protection of minors, because it's the theme the Commission itself repeats most consistently across its own documents.
No. It's a proposal under preparation at the European Commission. No draft legal text exists, and no binding obligations follow from it yet.
The Commission has said it will table a legislative proposal in 2026. Even if that timeline holds, the proposal then has to be negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU — a process that typically takes one to several years — before member states implement the adopted law nationally. Binding national implementation is therefore realistically years away, not in 2026 or 2027.
They're two entirely separate things, and it's a common mix-up. The DSA is already fully in force and puts concrete transparency obligations on platforms (not influencers directly) around paid ads — see the EU DSA's ad transparency rules. The Digital Fairness Act, by contrast, is still only a proposal for an entirely new, separate law that doesn't have any text yet.
Yes. The Commission's own published review from 3 October 2024 names "misleading marketing by influencers" verbatim as one of the problems the forthcoming law is meant to solve — not just as part of a general category of "digital problems", but as its own, named item.
No. The rules that govern disclosure today — Markedsføringsloven § 6(4) and the UCPD — are already binding and already enforced by Forbrugerombudsmanden. The Digital Fairness Act doesn't change what applies now; at best, it could tighten it further, years from now. See influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU for what actually has to be followed today.
Yes, and several are already binding or closer to taking effect than the Digital Fairness Act. The EU AI Act's Article 50 labelling duty for AI-generated marketing content took effect in August 2026 — see the EU AI Act's Article 50 labelling duty. The EU's political advertising transparency regulation (TTPA) has applied since 10 October 2025 to political content — see the EU's TTPA regulation. Both, unlike the Digital Fairness Act, are already in force, not just a proposal.
Because it's useful to be able to tell what's binding today apart from what's merely a proposal under preparation — especially since both often get mentioned in the same sentence in news coverage. This article will be updated once the Commission actually tables draft legal text.
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