When Stop Killing Games's Ross Scott previously spoke about the initiative, he mentioned that the upcoming Digital Fairness Act was considering addressing game licensing but ultimately passing up the opportunity. Now, the European Commission has officially published a draft of the Digital Fairness Act, allowing us to see what the proposed legislation is targets and how that might affect video games and their makers. The draft act aims to "tackle unfair commercial practices affecting consumers online, while simplifying and harmonizing parts of the existing legal framework," and it will affect everything from dark patterns and subscription services to loot boxes, in-game purchases, digital contracts, and even influencer marketing.

What will be most pertinent to gamers and gaming companies is that gaming companies will be forced to be more transparent about in-game spending. This means they will need to show the real-world monetary value of virtual items purchased with in-game currency; loot boxes and other paid variable rewards systems will need to have rewards clearly shown as well as the probability of obtaining those rewards, and these systems will be unavailable for minors; and pay-to-win mechanics will be prohibited for minors under certain conditions. Platform designers, like social media companies, will also need to abide by new rules relating to what the Commission is calling "addictive design and attention-maximizing features."If the Digital Fairness Act passes, social media platforms will need to provide reasonable tools to disable:

• Autoplay and infinite scrolling features
• Notifications unrelated to the user's own activity or content
• Streaks, rewards, or penalties that pressure users into returning to the platform
• Automated features that "simulate interpersonal relationships" and effectively manipulate users into spending more time on the platform

The Digital Fairness Act also seeks to regulate influencer and social media marketing, calling for clearer disclosure of sponsored or commercial content or collaboration, banning promotions disguised as independent recommendations, restricting marketing to minors and their parents, and putting the onus on brands to enforce disclosure when it comes to commercial collaborations, instead of leaving it to the influencer alone. The full draft act is available here, and the EU has published a guide about the new act here.