EU mulls stronger protection for consumers online
Video gaming - Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash
(BRUSSELS) - With the speed of technology, European consumers need better protection against the harmful practices and challenges they face online, according to an EU report published Friday.
The European Commission 'Digital Fairness Fitness Check' evaluates whether the current EU consumer protection laws are fit for purpose to ensure a high level of protection in the digital environment.
Three core Directives are covered: the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive, and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive.
While confirming the rules' relevance in ensuring a high level of consumer protection, the report also shows that consumers behave differently online than offline. And technological developments and increased tracking of online behaviour enable businesses to more effectively persuade consumers online.
The Commission says this highlights the need for rules that are better adapted to the specific harmful practices and challenges that consumers face online.
Consumers do not always feel fully in control of their online experience, says the report, due to practices such as:
- dark patterns in online interfaces that can unfairly influence their decisions, for example, by putting unnecessary pressure on consumers through false urgency claims;
- addictive design of digital services that pushes consumers to keep using the service or spending more money, such as, gambling-like features in video games;
- personalised targeting that takes advantage of consumers' vulnerabilities, such as showing targeted advertising that exploits personal problems, financial challenges or negative mental states;
- difficulties with managing digital subscriptions, for example, when companies make it excessively hard to unsubscribe;
- problematic commercial practices of social media influencers. Some of these practices may already go against existing EU consumer law and other EU law, for example, the Digital Services Act and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
The EU executive says the various harmful commercial practices online cost EU consumers at least €7.9 billion per year. At the same time, the cost for businesses to comply with EU consumer law is much lower, not exceeding €737 million per year.
At the same time, the effectiveness of EU consumer protection is undermined by insufficient enforcement , legal uncertainty, the increasing risk of regulatory fragmentation across Member States' national approaches, and the lack of incentives for businesses to aim for the highest standard of protection.
The Fitness Check argues for further action to make the digital environment fair for consumers. This includes tackling the most harmful practices such as dark patterns. Increased legal certainty could prevent regulatory fragmentation and promote fair growth. There is scope for simplifying existing rules, without compromising the level of protection.
On the agenda for new Commission's forthcoming mandate will be to ensure the coherent application and effective enforcement of EU consumer law and the EU digital rulebook, including the Digital Services Act, which prohibits several unfair practices on online platforms.
Digital Fairness Fitness Check report
Digital Fairness Fitness Check - MEMO
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive