A W3C draft published this week extends the browser's old loyalty obligation to AI agents: a user agent must serve its user's interests over its implementer's and over any other party's. Applied to commerce, this becomes a translation problem. When an agent converts "find me a hotel near the conference with flexible cancellation" into a ranked list, the filters it applies, the results it surfaces or buries, are translation choices the user never sees in their raw form. The draft requires agents to disclose sources and actions. But a ranking algorithm can be disclosed without being legible, the same way a financial prospectus technically tells you everything while communicating almost nothing. Who verifies the translation was faithful? The draft doesn't say.
Loyalty: User interests over implementer's and any third party's, even if the agent is pre-installed or ad-funded.
Honesty: When an agent transforms content users can't directly observe, it must show sources, actions, and outcomes.
Portability: Users can't be blocked from switching agents or moving credentials.
Unaddressed: How ranking logic or referral economics shape what the user actually sees. The draft governs allegiance but not the mechanics of selection.
Context: OpenAI began testing advertiser-funded "Sponsored Agents" inside its assistant in September 2026, a configuration the draft doesn't directly address.