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Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Protection: is the EU's regulation sufficient?

Publication at Faculty of Law |
2022

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics right now. Many debates have been held over the nature of AI, whether it should be granted legal personality or who is liable for the damages it causes. Surprisingly not many such debates were held over the implications of AI usage in consumer markets, despite a fresh regulatory update from the European Union (EU) in the consumer protection sector and (many) debates about the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act.

The scope of the research is existing and proposed consumer protection regulation and artificial intelligence rules by the EU. The paper examines practical situations and applications of AI concerning consumers: as a tool used by traders, entrepreneurs, and service providers and as a product used by consumers. Based on these real-world situations, the paper tries to answer whether the proposed regulation is sufficient to cover most if not all problematic situations concerning consumers, but also whether, in those specific cases, the correct tools and regulatory approaches are used and whether other more effective ones can or cannot be taken.