Redesigning Protection for Consumer Autonomy : The case-study of dark patterns in European private law

Abstract

European legal protection of consumer autonomy has been significantly changed in the digital environment, where algorithm-driven systems perform everything. This book focuses on protecting consumer autonomy facing the pervasive and global phenomenon of dark patterns: the expression includes various tactics that manipulate consumers by altering online choice architecture to thwart user preferences for objectionable ends. Overloading, skipping, stirring, hindering, and flicking are examples. Moving from the perspective that the sole traditional information approach is ineffective in protecting autonomy, the adopted methodology considers the multiple concerns revolving around the tight combination of transparent information and fair digital architectural design. Consequently, the comparative study of the new suitable regulatory directions arises across different legal fields, including data protection, consumer, and competition law. The relationship between deceptive designs, the nature of human-digital architecture interaction, and the techno-legal paradigms emphasises which future changes in European private law could integrate legal rules into fair designs to protect digital consumer autonomy effectively. Specific importance will be attributed to the functionality of comparative methodology to include non-legal essential insights (e.g. behavioural, informatic elements) into pragmatic and global regulatory paths and models.