A leaked draft of the European Union’s Digital Fairness Act could make an artificial intelligence (AI) shopping agent’s commercial incentives determine how autonomously it is permitted to act. As written, the proposed law would place constraints on commission-funded services that promise to handle purchases without human intervention.

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Article 26 would allow consumers to delegate purchasing decisions but require fresh approval when the agent’s provider receives payment for proposing a contract or has a conflict involving the merchant. The provision attempts to reconcile delegated purchasing with the paid recommendations underpinning digital commerce.

Barry Scannell, a partner at Irish law firm William Fry, highlighted the provision in a LinkedIn analysis on Tuesday (Nov. 10). Scannell pointed to consumer protection as the emerging framework for governing commercial AI agents, using a hypothetical hotel-booking to illustrate the tension. An agent operating within an approved budget could still need confirmation if its recommendation carries a commercial incentive.

For providers, that could make authorization a product feature with legal consequences. Spending permissions, approval settings and records of consumer instructions could become central to demonstrating whether an automated purchase respected the consumer’s choices.

Under the framework Scannell describes, consumers would expressly choose at first use whether to approve every contract, require confirmation for specified contracts using criteria including a maximum price and time limit, or allow purchases without further confirmation. Settings would be adjustable at any time, with the selection confirmed on a durable medium.

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