The Department of Civil Law at the Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies (FPGIS) of the Ludovika University of Public Service (LUPS) organized an international conference titled "Digital Fairness Act (DFA): Is a New Regulation Necessary?" in the Széchenyi Assembly Hall of the Ludovika Main Building on September 30 to review the planned reform of European Union consumer protection law.
"One of the most important challenges of our time is the proper protection of consumers in the digital world," said Balázs Bartóki-Gönczy, Vice-Dean for Scientific Affairs at FPGIS, in his opening remarks. He added that domestic and international social science experts, judges, lawyers, and economists gathered at the conference to contribute to the discussion of this issue. The topic is particularly timely as the EU plans to adopt a new regulation to protect consumers in digital markets.
This is understandable, given that our decisions in front of screens today are shaped by influencers, addictive and deceptive interfaces, and invisible manipulations of our behavior. However, the core question of the conference is whether the existing legal frameworks are capable of providing sufficient protection for consumers, or if a new regulation is truly necessary for security. The presentations thus go beyond academic dialogue, as they tie directly into the ongoing legislative process, the outcome of which could affect the daily lives of all European citizens.
Artificial intelligence (AI) makes our lives easier in many ways, but it also brings new challenges, including in the field of consumer rights, highlighted Mateja Đurović, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, in his online presentation. One important area of these new challenges is the issue of platform-operated algorithms, where data privacy concerns, deceptive patterns influencing users, and the related development of addiction pose the greatest problems.
Regarding deceptive patterns that mislead users, the problem is not a lack of legislation, but rather that existing laws do not form a coherent system, pointed out Fabiana Di Porto, Associate Professor at Unitelma Sapienza University of Rome, in her presentation titled Deceptive Patterns: Regulatory Fragmentation.
User interfaces should follow fair design practices instead of deceptive patterns, emphasized Mark Leiser, expert in digital, legal, and platform regulation, in his presentation titled Regulatory Responses to Deceptive Design Practices. He added that personally, he does not expect a groundbreaking new regulation with the DFA, as he sees the legislators' approach to certain issues as quite outdated.
You can read more about the conference in the article on the university’s popular science portal, ludovika.hu.
Text: Tibor Sarnyai
Photo: Dénes Szilágyi