The European Parliament has voted to adopt a report prepared by its IMCO Committee on the addictive design of online services and consumer protection. The IMCO Committee report (details of which were previously reported by Wiggin), which Parliament appears to have adopted without amendment, calls on the Commission to consider whether further legislation is needed to address what it considers to be the addictive nature of online games, social media, streaming services and online marketplaces which exploit users’ vulnerabilities to capture their attention and monetise their data. In its press release, the Parliament states that if these issues are not addressed, Parliament should use it right of legislative initiative (a right to invite the Commission to submit legislative proposals, with an obligation on the Commission to propose the legislation requested or provide reasons for any refusal). In any event, the Commission has already identified the addictive use of digital products as a topic to be consider as part of its Fitness Check of EU Consumer Law on Digital Fairness, a consultation for which was published in November 2022.

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