EU Trends and Developments Contributed by: Ekaterina Bronsky, Yuriy Brisov, Alexandra Zviagintseva and Yasmin Komshilova, Digital & Analogue Partners
protection law adds a further layer of transparency: Directive (EU) 2019/2161, which amended the Con - sumer Rights Directive, requires traders to inform con - sumers when a price has been personalised on the basis of automated decision-making, while the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive separately requires that price information be presented clearly and intel - ligibly. Recent enforcement activity illustrates how these rules operate in practice. Following a 2022 study by the Swedish Consumers’ Association, which found that Tinder charged different users different prices with no transparent rationale, the Consumer Protection Coop - eration Network opened an investigation co-ordinated by the European Commission and led by the Swedish Consumer Agency and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets. The investigation examined Tinder’s use of automated personalisation, including pricing variations linked to age and behavioural sig - nals such as prior disinterest in premium features. The investigation concluded in March 2024 with commit - ments from Tinder: to refrain from age-based pricing without clear advance notice, to disclose when dis - counts are personalised by automated means, and to explain the factors behind any personalised offer. The case illustrates the limits of the existing frame - work as much as its reach. Current rules address dis - closure and certain categories of data processing, but they do not resolve the broader concerns associated with personalised pricing: data-driven models may exploit behavioural vulnerabilities, render discrimina - tory outcomes difficult to detect, and leave consumers unable to understand why they were offered a particu - lar price, even where formal disclosure requirements are met. These gaps help explain why personalised pricing remains a live issue in the Commission’s prepara - tory work on the Digital Fairness Act. Options under discussion include giving consumers an explicit right to receive non-personalised pricing and advertising. Given the EU’s role as a global standard-setter on data protection, the approach ultimately adopted is likely to influence how other jurisdictions regulate person - alised pricing in digital markets.
Reshaping the rules of personalised advertising Personalised advertising is another area where EU regulation is moving from formal consent towards more substantive limits on data use. The DSA restricts certain forms of targeted advertis - ing, including advertising based on the profiling of minors and special categories of personal data. The DMA goes further for gatekeepers. The Commis - sion’s Meta decision (DMA.100055) in April 2025 is the central example. Meta’s “consent or pay” model required Facebook and Instagram users to either accept personalised advertising or pay a subscrip - tion fee: initially EUR9.99/month on desktop and EUR12.99/month on mobile. The Commission found this breached Article 5 (2) of the DMA: access to the free service was conditioned on consent to cross-ser - vice data combination, with no less-personalised but equivalent alternative on offer. The Commission fined Meta EUR200 million for the non-compliance period of March–November 2024. Meta has since introduced a free “less personalised ads” option in the EU. Under this model, Meta does not use a user’s broader profile or infer interests based on factors such as work or education. Instead, adver - tising relies primarily on the content that the user is viewing during the current browsing session. The decision confirms that the Commission requires that users be offered a real choice regarding person - alised advertising, including an alternative that relies on less extensive processing of personal data rather than a simple pay-or-consent model. Reshaping the rules of personalised services and recommender systems Regulatory scrutiny is also expanding beyond adver - tising and pricing into the design of digital services themselves. Recommending systems increasingly influence what users see, how long they remain on a platform and how they interact with digital content. Under the DSA, online platforms must assess and mitigate systemic risks associated with their ser - vices: Article 28, DSA requires platforms accessible
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