Ihe act of consuming has changed profoundly over the past decade, with the emergence and expansion of online platforms and marketplaces. This phenomenon has given rise to the emergence of new risks for consumers, whose free will is particularly undermined by the power and opacity of the algorithms used.
In 2023, 97% of the most popular e-commerce sites and applications among European consumers contain dark patternsthat is to say “misleading user interfaces, carefully designed so that a user makes choices without being aware of it or not wishing to do so” (“The form of choices. Personal data, design and desirable frictions”, Digital Innovation Laboratory of the National Commission for Computing and Liberties /LINC, Innovation and foresight notebook No. 6, March 2019).
There is therefore an urgent need to regulate, which constitutes an additional opportunity for the European Union to establish its status as a normative power in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the European market while the global technological space is still largely dominated by the United States. United and China. Judicial news illustrates the relevance of a normative effort to protect the digital consumer.
An international shock wave
On April 14, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld Twitter’s conviction for inserting into its terms of use, privacy policy and rules no less than 250 abusive and/or unlawful clauses, in violation of the right to the consumption. This decision is part of several legal actions brought by the consumer defense association UFC-Que Choisir, all of which have resulted in the conviction – mainly symbolic – of Twitter, Google and Facebook, required to comply.
Far from being symbolic, on the other hand, the sanctions pronounced by the independent administrative authorities of regulation have what to quiver the digital giants and to reassure the consumers. The record fine of 1.2 billion euros pronounced on May 12 by the equivalent of the CNIL in Ireland against Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, for non-compliance with the rules of the RGPD, with obligation to comply within the next six months is an illustration of this.
The international shock wave created by this sanction demonstrates the power of European regulations. Initially designed to guarantee economic cooperation and the free movement of goods and services, the European Union (EU) quickly grasped the need to protect consumers from the proven risks of a highly competitive digital market in which companies have set up place aggressive sales and marketing approaches.
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