EU opens in-game currency cases against ten games companies

The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network has opened eleven coordinated enforcement actions against ten video game companies over the way they sell in-game virtual currency, the broadest application of EU consumer law to free-to-play economies so far.

Who has been asked to change

The companies named are Activision Blizzard UK, Crytek, InnoGames, King.com, Mojang AB, Plarium Europe, PLR Worldwide Sales, Riot Games, Supercell and Ubisoft EMEA. Between them the eleven actions cover eleven games: Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile, Hunt: Showdown 1896, Forge of Empires, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Mech Arena, Gardenscapes, Valorant, Clash of Clans and For Honor.

Why the network moved now

The network, coordinated by the European Commission, adopted Key Principles on in-game virtual currencies in March 2025. It then held workshops with the industry in June and September 2025 and traded written proposals with Video Games Europe and the European Games Developer Federation. Its joint statement says it found indications that a high number of companies had made no substantive changes as a result of that guidance or those talks.

The statement singles out variable reward systems such as loot boxes, particularly where they are aimed at or available to children, alongside dark patterns, aggressive practices and the direct exhortation of children to buy - something EU consumer law already prohibits. The legal basis cited runs from the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive to the Digital Content Directive, applied through the CPC Regulation.

What actually happens next

These are requests to bring commercial practices into line rather than fines, and no penalties have been announced. The network says it will keep taking joint enforcement action where appropriate and is calling on every company in the sector to review its practices against the common positions it has published. For a publisher, the practical question is how quickly a virtual currency shop can be rebuilt without breaking the economy it drives.

Our opinion

The striking thing here is the timeline, not the target list. The Commission published guidance, ran two workshops and held written exchanges, and still concluded that a high number of companies had changed nothing substantive. That is a finding about voluntary self-regulation as much as it is about games.

Nor is this a niche list. Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga are on it, and both are played by children by the million, which puts the loot box and dark pattern language squarely on the games most likely to reach the audience the network says it is protecting. Enforcement was always going to be the lever that moved this; the surprise is how long the softer tools were left to work first.

Photo by Omer Yilmaz on Pexels