The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) was among 21 national consumer agencies which took part in an international sweep coordinated by the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network (ICPEN).

The annual sweep, which took place between 31 March and 11 April 2025, saw 439 mobile and online games scrutinised to identify potential consumer harms.

The CCPC said today that the sweep found several design techniques that may aim to manipulate players as young as three into making decisions or purchases they wouldn’t otherwise make.

These include practices known as “sneaking”, “nagging” and “obstruction”.

Sneaking is where information is intentionally withheld or hidden, for example the real-world price of virtual in-game currencies. 

Nagging is the use of repeated, seemingly endless notifications or reminders, leading to a player agreeing to an action, such as make an in-app purchase out of frustration. 

Obstruction is where a game is intentionally designed to block a player in a certain way that frustrates them into making a decision or purchase to progress further.

The sweep also focused on other potentially harmful consumer practices in how games used “loot boxes” — in-game rewards which can be bought with real or virtual currency, or earned by watching in-game ads or spending time in the game.

Moreover, only 30 per cent of games with loot boxes disclosed the presence of this monetisation mechanism at the download stage.

It found that loot boxes, in-game purchases and in-game advertisements were just as common in games rated ages three and up as they were in any other age group.

The sweep also uncovered urgency-style tactics aimed at pressuring players to purchase items that were only available for a limited time, when this may have been untrue.

The CCPC will now assess the games further for potential breaches of EU and Irish consumer protection law.