Will the EU ban infinite scroll? What the Digital Fairness Act means

If you've been wondering whether the EU will ban infinite scroll, the short answer is no, not yet. Nothing has been decided for adults. The European Commission is expected to propose the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) in mid-November 2026, and it is the first EU law that could put limits on infinite scroll, autoplay and push notifications for grown-ups, not only for children. Even if it passes with strong rules, your apps probably won't change before about 2028.

The timing comes from the European Parliamentary Research Service791529.html), whose October briefing says the proposal is "scheduled for mid-November." Ursula von der Leyen said in May that the DFA would tackle "addictive and harmful design practices," including endless scrolling, autoplay and push notifications, according to MediaNama. Below is what's settled, what's still being fought over, and what you can switch off yourself in the meantime. I'll update this post when the proposal is published.

Will the EU ban infinite scroll? So far only TikTok has been told off

On 6 February 2026 the Commission found, in a preliminary ruling, that TikTok broke the Digital Services Act (DSA) through addictive design. The features it named were infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommendations. It also said TikTok ignored signs of compulsive use, such as minors using the app at night and how often people open it, according to the European Parliament Think Tank.

Two details matter. The phrase "addictive design" doesn't appear anywhere in the DSA, so the case leans on articles about risk assessment, manipulative interfaces and protecting minors. And "preliminary" means not final. As of the Parliament's May summary I haven't seen a final decision or a fine.

The DSA also has a reach problem. Its duty to assess risks applies only to very large platforms and search engines, the EPRS briefing791529.html) notes. Smaller apps with the same tricks sit outside it.

The KIDS Act covers children, and stops at 18

On 17 September 2026 the Commission adopted the EU KIDS Act. It bars children under 13 from social media, sets an EU-wide minimum age of 15 to open your own account, and requires platforms to show their services are "age-appropriate and safe by design," which puts the burden of proof on them, according to the European Commission.

It would also ban design features that push minors into compulsive or excessive use and restrict recommendation algorithms for them, per the EPRS791529.html). For adults, none of this applies. Your feed is untouched. (If you're in the UK, EU law doesn't reach you at all, and I've covered where the UK's own plans stand separately.)

What the Digital Fairness Act could do about addictive design

The DFA exists because the Commission's own 2024 review found EU consumer law "only partly effective in the digital environment." It flagged dark patterns, addictive design and unfair personalisation. Existing rules are hard to apply to "harms linked to excessive use or mental harms," the EPRS briefing791529.html) explains, so a feed that eats your evening is awkward to fit into a law written for misleading prices.

The briefing names autoplay, infinite scroll, notifications and rewards for continued use as features that may encourage excessive use. The Parliament already asked for action in December 2023, in a resolution that floated a digital "right not to be disturbed."

Industry wants a pause, consumer groups want defaults switched off

• Industry associations urged the Commission in March 2026 to "pause and reset" the DFA (EPRS).
• Consumer groups BEUC and EDRi want addictive design disabled by default, with binding rules (EPRS).
• 14 ministers from the D9+ group of digitally advanced member states called in June 2026 for "an evidence-based and targeted approach" (EPRS).
• Snap's CEO wrote to the Justice Commissioner in May 2025 saying addictive design is "already comprehensively regulated" under the DSA, according to the campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory, which also reports lobbying against limits by TikTok, Meta and Google.

Nobody yet knows whether the DFA will be a regulation, a directive or part of a bigger "omnibus" package. That choice matters for speed. A regulation applies the same way everywhere, while a directive has to be written into each country's law first.

When is the Digital Fairness Act coming? Look at how long the DSA took

A proposal is only the start. The Parliament and the member states then negotiate, amend and vote. The DSA is a useful yardstick: proposed in December 2020, voted by Parliament on 5 July 2022 and by the Council on 4 October 2022, and in force on 16 November 2022, per Wikipedia's summary of the Official Journal. Most of its obligations only applied some time after that.

So nearly two years passed between proposal and entry into force, before platforms had to change anything. At a similar pace, a DFA proposed in November 2026 would enter into force around late 2028, with actual changes to apps later still. That's my rough estimate from one precedent, and a contested file with heavy lobbying could easily run slower.

Addictive design is well documented, digital addiction is not a diagnosis

The Commission itself notes that digital addiction is not a recognised diagnosis. Its working document also found that 33% of consumers say they spend too much time or money on certain websites and apps, according to a summary by law firm Dentons. That's self-report, but it's a lot of people.

The design side is easier to show. Researchers using a 55-question checklist found at least 40 addiction-promoting elements each on Instagram and TikTok, reports AK Europa, the Austrian Chamber of Labour's Brussels office. Treat that as indicative: it's an advocacy body and I couldn't confirm the research team or date.

In a Semmelweis University study of students aged 18 to 35, about a third were heavy users spending four to five hours or more a day, mostly consuming content rather than talking to people. They scored worse than expected on memory and attention tests and reported poorer sleep, per ScienceDaily. The study is cross-sectional, and the authors say it doesn't show scrolling caused the differences. I've written more on passive scrolling research if you want the detail.

You'll also see claims that feeds are "as addictive as drugs." I found no evidence for that. The fair summary is that the hooks are real and deliberate, while the evidence on harm is mostly self-report and correlation.

You can switch off autoplay and notifications today, years before any law

1. 01
   Cut social notifications

   the Semmelweis researchers recommend dropping unnecessary social and messaging alerts, which is the "right not to be disturbed" done by hand.

2. 02
   Turn off autoplay

   it's on every list, from the TikTok finding to BEUC's demands, and most apps hide a setting for it somewhere.

3. 03
   Watch the kind of use

   content-heavy scrolling was the pattern linked to worse attention and memory scores, while messaging friends wasn't.

4. 04
   Keep the phone out of bed

   around 40% of Pew respondents say their phone hurts their sleep, and the researchers advise the same.

5. 05
   Change the design, not your resolve

   about a quarter of people who tried to cut back failed, so removing the feed itself beats promising yourself to scroll less.