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#Tech, Media, Telecom

Shaping the Future of European Consumer Protection: Towards a Digital Fairness Act?

  • December 4, 2024
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Background

In October 2024 the European Commission published the Digital Fairness Fitness Check, evaluating the effectiveness of key directives forming the core of EU consumer law: Unfair Commercial Practices, Consumer Rights, and Unfair Contract Terms. The evaluation focused on whether these Directives provide adequate protection for consumers in the digital environment.

The Fitness Check highlights that while these directives provide a baseline for consumer protection in digital markets, their overall effectiveness is limited. Several problematic practices are not adequately addressed under the current framework, raising the need for new legislative measures. A potential Digital Fairness Act is expected to fill these gaps, though the Fitness Check Report refrains from offering specific policy recommendations.

 

Summary and Key Findings

In this issue paper, CERRE Research Fellows Christoph Busch and Amelia Fletcher explore the potential contours of a Digital Fairness Act, structuring their analysis around the key areas for improvement identified by the Commission:

  • Tackling the most harmful practices
  • Reducing legal uncertainty and regulatory fragmentation
  • Ensuring consistent application of EU laws
  • Enhancing enforcement and compliance mechanisms
  • Simplifying rules without compromising consumer protection

For the Digital Fairness Act to fully realise the potential outlined in the Fitness Check, significant work remains to address a range of unresolved issues. Rather than offering immediate policy recommendations, this issue paper identifies key overarching questions that will require further discussion during the development of this new legislation and should shape the upcoming policy debate. The Fitness Check Report serves as a starting point for a broader conversation about the future framework of European consumer protection law. Fletcher and Busch underscore that the ultimate goal is to balance several critical objectives: ensuring robust consumer protection in the digital age, enabling effective enforcement, reducing fragmentation, fostering competitiveness and growth, and avoiding over-regulation. This paper aims to promote discussion on the overarching policy questions and challenges ahead as we progress towards a Digital Fairness Act.

This paper builds on CERRE’s earlier research on Harmful Online Choice Architecture by the same authors. Explore CERRE’s previous publication here.

Author(s)
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Christoph Busch (3)
Christoph Busch
Research Fellow
and University of Osnabrück

Christoph Busch is Professor of Law and Director of the European Legal Studies Institute at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He is a Fellow and Council Member of the European Law Institute (ELI) and an Affiliated Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale University. His research focuses on consumer law, platform governance and algorithmic regulation.

Christoph Busch is Professor of Law and Director of the European Legal Studies Institute at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. He is a Fellow and Council Member of the European Law Institute (ELI) and an Affiliated Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale University. His research focuses on consumer law, platform governance and algorithmic regulation.

Amelia Fletcher (3)
Amelia Fletcher
Research Fellow
and University of East Anglia

Amelia Fletcher CBE is a Professor of Competition Policy at the Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia and co-editor of the Journal of Competition Law and Economics. She also acts as an expert witness.

She has been a Non-Executive Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (2016-2023), Financial Conduct Authority (2013-20) and Payment Systems Regulator (2014-20), and a member of Ofgem’s Enforcement Decision Panel (2014-2022). She has also been a member of DG Comp’s Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy, and was a member of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, commissioned by the UK Treasury and led by Jason Furman, which reported in March 2019.

She was previously Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading (2001-2013), where she also spent time leading the OFT’s Mergers and Competition Policy teams. Before joining the OFT, she was an economic consultant at Frontier Economics (1999-2001) and London Economics (1993-1999).

She has written and presented widely on competition and consumer policy. In her ongoing research, Amelia has a particular interest in the implications for competition and consumer policy of behavioural economics and online markets.

Amelia has a DPhil and MPhil in economics from Nuffield College, Oxford.

Amelia Fletcher CBE is a Professor of Competition Policy at the Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia and co-editor of the Journal of Competition Law and Economics. She also acts as an expert witness.

She has been a Non-Executive Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (2016-2023), Financial Conduct Authority (2013-20) and Payment Systems Regulator (2014-20), and a member of Ofgem’s Enforcement Decision Panel (2014-2022). She has also been a member of DG Comp’s Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy, and was a member of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, commissioned by the UK Treasury and led by Jason Furman, which reported in March 2019.

She was previously Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading (2001-2013), where she also spent time leading the OFT’s Mergers and Competition Policy teams. Before joining the OFT, she was an economic consultant at Frontier Economics (1999-2001) and London Economics (1993-1999).

She has written and presented widely on competition and consumer policy. In her ongoing research, Amelia has a particular interest in the implications for competition and consumer policy of behavioural economics and online markets.

Amelia has a DPhil and MPhil in economics from Nuffield College, Oxford.

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