Leaked EU Draft Would Switch Off Loot Boxes by Default for Minors
An alleged draft of the European Union's Digital Fairness Act has leaked ahead of its scheduled publication on 11 November. According to Eurogamer, which reported the draft on 10 November 2026, it would tighten the rules on loot boxes and in-game spending for young players.
The Digital Fairness Act is a proposed set of EU consumer protection rules. It is not yet law, so its wording could still change before it is adopted.
Loot boxes are paid packs that hand out random rewards, so buyers do not know in advance what they will get. The leaked draft recommends that loot boxes be turned off by default for minors. It also recommends the same default for the sale of in-game items and currencies, the virtual coins and gems that many games use as a second money system.
"Turned off by default" means a young player would start without the feature switched on. The draft goes further for adults. It suggests all consumers, not only minors, should be able to switch off offers linked to loot boxes and gambling-style mechanics.
On transparency, the draft calls for prices to show the real-money value of purchases made with virtual currencies. It also calls for players to see the probability of winning each loot box prize.
Pay-to-progress and pay-to-win features, which let a player move faster or gain an advantage by paying, should not be made available to minors. According to the draft, that applies where a product is aimed at minors, or where the trader is aware with reasonable certainty that minors use it.
The timeline points to adoption in late 2027, with wider application by 2030. Those dates are not fixed, and they depend on the legislative process running as planned.
For studios, the rules would reach any game that sells items or currencies inside the game, including free-to-play titles, where the download costs nothing and the income comes from purchases. For families, the draft would shift the default settings and add more information to the screen before a purchase.
The draft has not been confirmed as official. Anyone looking for the final text will need to wait for the publication date of 11 November, when the wording may differ from what has leaked.
