This subproject focuses on consumers making purchasing decisions on online marketplaces and how platform operators' use of profiling tools contributes to the digital asymmetry between traders and consumers making purchasing decisions on these platforms, consequently rendering consumers vulnerable to exploitation.
This subproject specifically aims to address (1) how digital asymmetry differs from existing concepts of consumer weakness and vulnerability in European consumer law, (2) how profiling tools are used by online marketplace operators and their contribution to digital asymmetry in consumer markets, and (3) to what extent current European consumer law is capable of adequately and effectively protecting consumers from the risk of exploitation caused by digital asymmetry, prompted by the use of profiling tools and what additional regulatory and non-regulatory measures might contribute to protecting consumers from exploitation caused by the digital asymmetry in digital consumer markets based on the findings of the first two questions.
| Duration | 2023-2026 |
| PhD Candidate | Carolina Lisboa Pinto |
| Supervisor | Vanessa Mak |
| Supervisor | Armin Cuyvers |
Online marketplaces offer convenience and ease but also influence consumer purchasing decisions through 'persuasion profiles' built on data and automation, potentially rendering them vulnerable. European consumer laws, aimed at protecting specific vulnerable groups, may be inadequate to address the broader power imbalance between such powerful digital platforms and consumers.
Online profiling poses a lot of challenges, not only of the legal kind. Carolina Lisboa Pinto’s research intends to tackle many of the questions related to the safeguarding of digital consumers from harmful effects of online profiling.
