European organization publishes new rules for developers

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Swedish consumer protection made a complaint against a game in the European Union. Now the European Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) reacts with new guidelines for something that disturbs all players: microtransactions.

What happened? The Swedish consumer protection appealed online in the CPC against the developers of the riding stable game Star Stable online. The CPC checked the complaint and information of the company about commercial practices aka microtransactions that children could encounter.

They have found the following violations of applicable consumer protection and points that could particularly harm children. Among other things, children would be addressed directly in the game and asked to buy items and currencies. Furthermore, lack of transparency and pressure build -up is criticized by temporary offers.

From March 21, 2025, the developers of Star Stable Online have a month to report to the CPC in writing and to propose improvements in writing. European consumer protection, however, published a report with new rules for in-game purchases.

Microtransactions have been annoying the players for a long time:

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What are the new rules? The CPC published an eight-sided report with principles for virtual in-game currencies. The report can be downloaded from the European Commission’s official website.

Specifically, the CPC lists seven principles that define the minimum requirements for buying and using virtual currencies:

  • There must be a clear and transparent pricing
  • Practices that cover up costs for digital content and services in games should be avoided
  • Practices that force consumers to buy unwanted in-game currency should be avoided
  • The players should be provided with clear and understandable information before buying
  • The consumer’s right of withdrawal should be observed
  • The contractual clauses should be fair and be written in a clear, understandable language
  • Consumers’ need for protection should be observed, especially when it comes to children

    • In the report, the CPC also indicates clear measures to be taken for affected companies. Here is an example of the principle for more transparent pricing:

    The action points for principle 1 for clearer price stables for in-game purchases.

    What can this concretely mean? Microtransactions and in-game currencies also remain with these new guidelines for now. However, the pricing could become more transparent. In addition, it can now be more difficult for companies to address children and adolescents under the age of 18 directly with their offers.

    As early as September 2024, an organization of the European Union accepted one of the heart’s topics of gamers: the European Consumer organization complained that the current rules and laws would not be sufficient for microtransactions and in-game currencies. MeinMMO summarized the findings to you: After examining real money currencies, European organization is expressing what many players want long ago

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