Technology could help Europe’s Digital Fairness Act enforce online rights – Euractiv

The European Union has built a global reputation for protecting consumers. Despite this, delivering the same rights online as offline remains challenging – a barrage of legislation in recent years has aimed to balance the playing field, and now AI could play a role.

While the European Commission deploys legislation, industry is exploring how new technological solutions can be used to safeguard consumers in innovative ways.

Allwyn, a leading multi-national lottery operator, together with Euractiv, hosted an event in November to examine what can be done in practice and to look closely at the forthcoming “Digital Fairness Act.”

The so-called DFA has the potential to impact a huge range of industries, from e-commerce to entertainment, all of which will need to adhere to new standards, including transparent marketing practices and measures to prevent addictive behaviours.

Artificial Intelligence Act

Where the Artificial Intelligence Act specifically aims to regulate AI systems and their application in industry, and the Digital Services Act (DSA) regulates online content, new measures seek to level the digital playing field, address unfair practices and ensure consumers are thoroughly protected both online and offline.

The European Commission has also launched a Digital Fairness Fitness Check of EU consumer law on digital fairness to assess whether the current legal framework is sufficient to guarantee a high level of consumer protection in the evolving digital landscape.

This fitness check evaluates three EU consumer law Directives: the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Rights Directive, and the Unfair Contract Terms Directive.

Olivia Brown, Advocacy officer and policy Officer of Euroconsumers, which represents 1.5 million consumers across Europe, said the Digital Services Act (DSA) represents good progress in consumer protection online, but the work is not done yet, adding that the focus now needs to be on ensuring the effective enforcement of the existing rules and addressing any gaps that are not being covered.

Digital Fairness Act

Brown believes the upcoming Digital Fairness Act should prioritise making sure the current regulations are being respected and upheld.

There are still some areas that are not being adequately covered, and these need to be addressed to provide comprehensive consumer protection online. Brown emphasises that no one can predict the future, so they are waiting to see what will happen with the proposed Digital Fairness Act.

“We know from our surveys and our call centres, as well as the recent fitness check, that consumers still face real issues when navigating the online world. So we need two things: we need to ensure the legislation we have is being enforced, and we need to address the gaps that exist in the legislation. The goal is not legislation for the sake of it, but empowering consumers to be active, informed participants,” she said.

Alexandre de Streel, Academic Director, Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), Professor at Namur University and College of Europe, focussed on the need to empower users to make more choices, and this is something that should be built into the digital architecture.

Safe, equitable environment

He highlighted three key areas as essential to creating a safer and more equitable digital environment for consumers.

Firstly, empowering users to have more choices through increased transparency, digital literacy efforts, and fighting against dark patterns. Second, delivering consistency and alignment across the various regulations like the DSA, DMA and AI Act.

This is particularly important for allowing small companies and startups to scale up across the single market.

De Streel suggests a model similar to the Single Supervisory Mechanism in financial regulation to create a coordinated approach between all the different European agencies, national authorities and the different regulations involved.

Finally, de Streel also sounded a note of optimism regarding leveraging technology, particularly AI-based tools, to improve enforcement of consumer protection laws.

AI could help spot contract clauses that violate regulations, he said. “Maybe the most important thing, I would say, is that technology may be a threat to consumer protection, but it’s also an opportunity, and I think too often we don’t see that enough in consumer protection,” he concluded.

Digital transformation

Nicole Garrett, Head of Responsible Gaming at Allwyn, first explained that, like many other industries, the lottery business is increasingly online. “And with that digital transformation, we have to consider how we offer our products and protect consumers, including minors, in the online environment. This is why we launched the Future of Lottery report in April to look mainly at the opportunities of digital transformation in lotteries,” she said.

Picking up on de Streel’s point, Garrett said that Allwyn has indeed been deploying digital tools to enhance consumer protection in the online lottery space, including using AI-based risk detection systems. These systems use behavioural markers to assess and predict player risk, allowing them to intervene when customers need support.

She said that transparency and accountability about the use of personal data is important for the business, but data is also an opportunity to develop better player protection approaches as well as protect minors in the online environment. “Having access to this information allows us to anticipate harm before it occurs and intervene accordingly,” she said.

“In terms of dark patterns/addictive game design, we will await the scope and definitions of these terms, but the priority is to ensure players can access safer gambling tools and support with ease when using our online products and that we ensure any game characteristics do not encourage excessive play.”

Garrett emphasised that the lottery industry is actively sharing best practices and innovations in player protection through industry associations like European Lotteries. She sees this as a collaborative effort where different stakeholders need to share their experiences in using digital tools to enhance consumer protection online.

Effective implementation

As a newly elected Member of the European Parliament and a member of the IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection) Committee, Peter Agius underlined that he sees consumer protection as a key foundation and pillar of the European Union, and he wants to ensure that consumers continue to be well-protected, especially in the online environment.

He emphasised the importance of effective implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA)

and pointed to the European Commission’s recent actions against large platforms like TikTok as an example of the challenges in implementing the new rules.

“It’s a huge call for Europe to make our consumers aware, first and foremost. And I think this is the intention behind most of the pieces of legislation that we put into action. But now, of course, the challenge is implementation.”

Agius added: “In a world where online platforms can change from one day to another, it’s not easy to keep track. So finally, at the end of the day, it all depends on how vigilant we are and how responsive we are, also with our public interaction to be able to adapt to these challenges.”

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]