Recital 31

Commercial practices occur in different forms on digital services and can have particular persuasive effects on minors, who face diverse, dynamic and personalised tactics, through for example, advertisements, product placements, the use of virtual currencies, influencer marketing, sponsorship or AI-enhanced nudging. In line with, and without prejudice to, the existing horizontal legal framework, in particular the Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁷⁾ that is fully applicable to all commercial practices including towards minors as consumers and the rules in Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on advertising (Article 26, Article 28(2) and Article 39) and dark patterns (Article 25). In the particular case of dark patterns, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 acts as the “safety net” complementing Directive 2005/29/EC. Economic transactions may be harmful to minors’ safety and security when using the service, especially where they do not understand the consequences of the transaction they are making. Therefore, minors should be clearly informed about economic transactions taking place online. To this end, purchases carried out within the service should be labelled as an economic transaction in an easy comprehensible manner and in real time. Virtual currencies and other tokens may also cause unwanted spending, therefore all kind of purchases should be displayed in the national currency of the habitual residence of the minor. Moreover, providers of online social networking services and of video-sharing platform services should ensure that minors as vulnerable consumers are not exploited and should not design their platform in such a way that can lead to excessive, impulsive or unwanted spending. This should include notably introducing a separation or friction between content and the purchasing of related products as well as preventing minors from being exposed to loot boxes and other products, where they offer random or unpredictable outcomes or gambling-like features.