The EU’s promise: transparency in digital spending
Back in March 2025, the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC Network) announced a bold new framework to fight predatory monetization practices in gaming. The goal was simple: stop companies from tricking players with vague pricing, fake currency values, and leftover balances that keep people spending more than they intend.
The EU’s recommendations include:
- Showing real-money prices alongside in-game currencies.
- Ending bundled currency packs that force players to overbuy.
- Restricting limited-time sales aimed at vulnerable or high-spending users.
- Requiring influencers to disclose monetization systems when promoting games.
On paper, these are the right moves. Transparency, fairness, and player protection are long overdue. But the reality? They’re still just recommendations.
The gap between good intentions and real change
That’s the issue. The EU’s March 2025 guidelines are not binding laws. They carry moral weight but lack legal teeth. Until governments and national consumer-protection agencies start enforcing these principles, with fines, audits, and investigations, most corporations won’t budge.
Gaming companies have built entire economies around microtransactions. They make money off confusion: when players can’t see real costs, they spend more. These systems aren’t mistakes; they’re carefully engineered.
It’s not just gaming. Prepaid services, gift cards, and online accounts all use the same tactic. Holding leftover funds indefinitely, sometimes for years, under “no refund” policies. Consumers rarely realize what happens to those small balances that never get used. It’s death by a thousand cuts, one dollar at a time.
Why this is a bigger problem than it seems
Predatory monetization is not just a gaming issue; it’s a consumer-rights issue. Companies often span borders, like a U.S. developer owned by a Chinese parent company selling to EU consumers (Riot Games), and that creates legal fog. Which country’s laws apply? Whose refund policy counts?
Most people don’t know, and corporations take advantage of that confusion. They’ll comply only where the law forces them to.
Let’s be blunt: capitalism has no built-in moral limit. A company’s job is to make money. If there’s a legal loophole, it’ll be used. Expecting empathy from a system designed for profit is wishful thinking. That’s why regulation matters. “Doing the right thing” almost never happens unless there’s a cost for not doing it.
How Riot Games and others could be affected
If these guidelines ever become law, big studios like Riot, EA, and Epic will have to rethink their entire monetization structure. Riot, for example, uses multiple in-game currencies (Riot Points, Mythic Essence, Ancient Sparks) that make tracking real value nearly impossible.
Under EU enforcement, that system might have to go. Items could be sold directly for real money, refund policies would strengthen, and leftover virtual currency would become harder to justify. That’s what consumer protection looks like. Clarity and fairness instead of endless micro-manipulation.
As of late 2025, Riot hasn’t changed much. Neither have most large publishers. They’re watching and waiting to see if the EU actually enforces the rules. Until a big company gets fined, everything stays theoretical.
What enforcement would actually look like
Enforcement would mean more than headlines. It would mean national agencies treating these guidelines as extensions of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), which already gives them authority to act on misleading sales tactics. Some EU member states are starting to do this. Others are still reviewing.
If the EU follows through and issues fines or public rulings against major offenders, that’s when global change happens. Historically, large tech and gaming companies prefer to change worldwide rather than maintain separate systems for different regions. That’s what happened with GDPR.
These guidelines may start in Europe, but their impact could reshape global gaming practices. If regulators actually enforce them.
Until then, the burden falls on consumers
Until enforcement becomes reality, consumers remain the safety net. Players have to push back by demanding refunds, calling out unfair design, and supporting developers who treat them like people instead of wallets.
Consumers do have rights: in the EU, unused digital currency purchases can be withdrawn within 14 days if untouched. Most people don’t know that. Companies rely on ignorance and inertia. The system works precisely because it’s small enough to ignore and complicated enough to discourage challenge.
Fairness shouldn’t be optional
The EU’s 2025 guidelines are a step forward, but they expose an uncomfortable truth: moral appeals don’t work on profit-driven systems. Without enforcement, “recommendations” are polite suggestions. Corporations only listen when there’s money at stake.
Predatory monetization practices will keep spreading until someone draws a real line. Either governments enforce the rules, or consumers will keep paying for the privilege of being exploited.
Fairness in digital markets shouldn’t depend on a company’s conscience. The EU has given us a roadmap to a fairer system. It’s time to make it law.
