§6.6 Commercial practices

68. Minors are particularly exposed to the persuasive effects of commercial practices and have a right to be protected against economically exploitative practices (68) by online platforms. They are confronted with commercial practices by online platforms, facing diverse, dynamic and personalised persuasive tactics through, for example, advertisement, product placements, the use of in-app currencies, influencer marketing, sponsorship or AI-enhanced nudging (69) (70). This can have a negative effect on minors’ privacy, safety and security when using the services of an online platform. 69. In line with, and without prejudice to, the existing horizontal legal framework, in particular the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC that is fully applicable to all commercial practices also towards minors (71) and the more specific rules in Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on advertising (Articles 26, 28(2) and 39) and dark patterns (Article 25), the Commission considers that providers of online platforms accessible to minors should adopt the following measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, on their service for the purposes Article 28(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065: (a) Ensure that minors’ lack of commercial literacy is not exploited by considering minors’ age, vulnerabilities and limited capacity to engage critically with commercial practices on the platform and provide relevant support (72). (b) Ensure that minors are not exposed to harmful, unethical and unlawful advertising (73). This may entail, for example considering the appropriateness of advertising campaigns for different age groups, addressing their adverse impact, and taking adequate security measures to protect minors as well as to ensure that they have access to information that is in their best interests (74). (c) Regularly review the relevant protective measures in consultation with minors, guardians and other relevant stakeholders. (d) Ensure that minors are not exposed to excessive total volumes, frequency and recommendation of commercial content, that can lead to excessive or unwanted spending or addictive behaviours and have detrimental effects on their privacy, safety and security. (e) Ensure that minors are not exposed to AI systems integrated in the platform that influence or nudge children for commercial purposes, particularly through conversational or advisory formats such as chatbots (75). (f) Ensure that declarations of commercial communication are clearly visible, child-friendly, age-appropriate and accessible (see Section 8.4 on Transparency) and consistently used throughout the service, for instance with the use of an icon or a similar sign to clearly indicate that content is advertising (76). These should be regularly tested and reviewed in consultation with minors, their guardians and other relevant stakeholders. (g) Ensure that minors are not exposed to marketing and communication of products or services that can have an adverse impact on their privacy, safety and security, including as identified in the provider’s risk review, including those associated with negative impacts on their physical and mental health (see Section 5 on Risk review). (h) Ensure that minors are not exposed to hidden or disguised advertising, whether placed by the provider of the online platform or the users of the service (77). In this context, the Commission recalls that providers of online platforms are also obliged, under Article 26(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, to provide recipients of the service with a functionality to declare whether the content they provide is or contains commercial communications (78). Examples of disguised commercial communications may include, but are not limited to, product placements by influencers, product showcases and other forms of subtle promotion that may deceive or manipulate minors into purchasing products or services. (i) Ensure that children are not exposed to techniques which can have the effect of reducing transparency of economic transactions and may be misleading for minors, such as certain virtual currencies (79), and other tokens or coins, that can be exchanged with real money (or, where applicable, for the purchase of another virtual currency) and used to purchase virtual items, thus also cause unwanted spending (80). (j) Ensure that minors, when accessing online platforms or parts and features thereof that are presented or appear as being free (81), are not exposed to in-app or in-game purchases that are or appear to be necessary to access or use the service. If minors are exposed to any other in app or in-game purchases, they should always be priced in the national currency. (k) Ensure that minors are not exposed to practices that can lead to excessive or unwanted spending or overuse of the platform or compulsive or addictive behaviours, by ensuring that minors are not exposed to virtual items such as paid loot boxes, other products, where they offer random or unpredictable outcomes or gambling-like features, and by introducing separation or friction between content and the purchasing of related products. (l) Ensure that minors are not exposed to manipulative design techniques (82), such as scarcity (83), intermittent or random rewards, or persuasive design techniques (84), that can lead to excessive, impulsive or unwanted spending or addictive behaviours. (m) Ensure that minors are not exposed to unwanted purchases, e.g. by considering deploying effective tools for guardians or submitting any financial commitment made by minors under a certain age to the review or consent of guardians (see Section 7.3 on Tools for guardians). (n) Review the platform’s policy to offer economic transactions, based on the evolving capacities of children, considering that certain age groups should not be exposed or allowed to enter into economic transactions as they do not yet possess the ability to comprehend spending and money.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07