The European Commission says Call of Duty Mobile, Minecraft and nine other games have ignored the EU in-game currency rules introduced last year, and it is now pushing publishers to fall into line. The warning marks one of the clearest signs yet that Brussels is prepared to treat loot boxes, premium currencies and bundle deals as a consumer protection issue rather than just a gaming quirk.
Key takeaways
- ✓The European Commission says 11 games, including Call of Duty Mobile and Minecraft, have ignored its 2025 virtual currency rules
- ✓The Key Principles demand clear real-world pricing, no confusing currency conversions, and no forced bundle purchases
- ✓The rules were drafted by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, a coalition of EU consumer authorities
- ✓Loot box style purchases are already banned or restricted in countries including Belgium and the Netherlands
- ✓Enforcement could mean fines or forced storefront changes for publishers that keep ignoring the guidance
The rules in question, known as the Key Principles on In-Game Virtual Currency, were published in 2025 by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, a body made up of national consumer authorities across the European Union. According to the Commission, many major publishers have simply failed to adjust their storefronts to meet them, prompting this fresh round of pressure almost a year after the principles were first handed down.
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What the EU in-game currency rules actually demand
The Key Principles were never meant to ban premium currencies outright. Instead, they set out baseline expectations for how publishers present prices and purchases to players, particularly in free-to-play titles that lean heavily on in-game stores.
Three requirements sit at the core of the framework. Games must show clear real-world pricing rather than hiding costs behind opaque in-game tokens, they must drop exchange mechanics that make it hard to work out what a purchase actually costs, and they must stop forcing players into bundle purchases when a single item is what they actually want. Each of these targets a tactic long associated with loot box style monetisation, where obscured pricing and bundled offers are used to nudge spending higher than a player might otherwise choose.
Call of Duty Mobile and Minecraft among 11 games named
Of the 11 games caught up in this latest round of scrutiny, the Commission has specifically named Call of Duty Mobile and Minecraft, two of the most played mobile and sandbox titles on the planet. Both operate large in-game economies built around premium currencies, seasonal bundles and cosmetic purchases, which makes them obvious test cases for regulators trying to demonstrate the rules have teeth.
The other nine titles under review have not been publicly detailed in the Commission’s latest statement, though the pattern is familiar. Games with live-service economies, battle passes and loot-box-adjacent reward systems tend to draw the most regulatory attention, simply because that is where pricing can be hardest for an average player, especially a younger one, to follow.
Why loot boxes keep drawing regulatory scrutiny
This is not the EU’s first brush with loot box mechanics. Belgium effectively banned paid loot boxes back in 2018, treating certain reward mechanics as a form of unlicensed gambling, and the Netherlands has pursued similar restrictions. Brazil has also moved to restrict loot box style systems in recent years, reflecting a broader global trend of regulators treating randomised, real-money purchases as something that needs guardrails rather than a standard business model.
What makes the current EU approach different is its focus on transparency rather than an outright ban. Rather than outlawing virtual currencies, the Key Principles try to force publishers to make the true cost of a purchase obvious before money changes hands. That is a lower bar to clear than a ban, which is partly why the Commission’s patience appears to be running thin with publishers that still haven’t adjusted their stores more than a year on.
The timing also lines up with a wider push across the games industry to tighten rules around player protection. Legislative efforts like the Protect Our Games Act show lawmakers are increasingly willing to intervene in how live-service titles treat their players, whether that is around preserving access to games or around how money is extracted from them.
What happens next for publishers and players
If publishers continue to ignore the guidance, the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network has the ability to coordinate enforcement action through national regulators, which can include fines or formal orders to change storefront practices. The European Commission’s consumer protection arm oversees that coordination, giving the Key Principles more weight than a simple recommendation, even though they stop short of being hard law in the way a directive would be.
Monetisation scrutiny is not limited to loot boxes either. Recent moves such as Microsoft’s own patent for pausing games to show ads show how closely regulators and the public are now watching every monetisation decision a major publisher makes, even ones that never ship.
For players outside the EU, including in Australia, there is no direct legal obligation on publishers to change anything. In practice, though, large studios rarely maintain separate storefront code for different regions when a simpler fix, such as clearer pricing labels, can be rolled out globally. If Activision Blizzard and Mojang adjust Call of Duty Mobile and Minecraft to satisfy Brussels, there is a reasonable chance those same pricing clarity changes quietly show up for players everywhere else too.
Frequently asked questions
What are the EU’s in-game currency rules?
They are the Key Principles on In-Game Virtual Currency, published in 2025 by the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation Network. They require clear real-world pricing, an end to confusing currency conversions, and no forced bundle purchases in games sold or played in the EU.
Which games has the European Commission named?
The Commission has publicly named Call of Duty Mobile and Minecraft as two of 11 games it says have not complied with the rules. The remaining nine titles have not been individually identified in the latest statement.
Will this affect players outside the EU, like Australia?
Not directly, since the rules only apply to EU storefronts. However, publishers often apply pricing and storefront changes globally rather than maintain separate versions for different regions, so flow-on changes elsewhere are possible.
What happens if publishers keep ignoring the rules?
The Consumer Protection Cooperation Network can coordinate enforcement through national consumer authorities, which can lead to fines or formal orders requiring publishers to change how they price and present in-game purchases.
