On Friday, the EU Commission presented its new consumer agenda for the next five years. Above all, it wants to empower European consumers to “play an active role in ecological and digital change”. It is also planning mechanisms to better enforce consumer rights within the EU and internationally also in third countries.

Dark Patterns In view of the increasing digitization of everyday life, the Commission considers it necessary to take action against controversial online business practices such as “dark patterns”, secret profiling and hidden advertising. Such activities, some of which are misleading, disregard the right of consumers to make an informed choice, abuse their behavior or distort their decision-making processes. According to a study by the Bundestag, these are designed to ensure that users of online services and social networks do things that run counter to their actual interests and can have negative consequences. As a rule, certain human behavior or perception patterns are abused and emotions are addressed, for example, in order to entice users to buy something on the Internet or to click a certain link.

Digital Service Act According to the Brussels government institution, the draft Digital Services Act (DSA) expected for the beginning of December will initially aim at Define “new and expanded responsibilities” for online platforms and increase their accountability. The DSA will ensure that consumers are protected against illegal products, content and activities online as effectively as they are offline. In addition, the Commission announced a draft law on digital markets to regulate platforms with a “gatekeeper” function more strictly from the outset planned requirements for Artificial Intelligence (AI) are “duly considered”. Relevant applications should ensure the protection of fundamental rights. If they cause damage, consumers should enjoy the same protection as with existing product or service categories. It also confirms that the Product Safety Directive will be revised.

The Commission also wants to ensure that sustainable products are available to consumers in the internal market. We want you to have better information in this area so that you can make an informed decision. To this end, the executive body wants to make a legislative proposal next year. In this way, practices such as “green dyeing” or the premature obsolescence of products can be better combated.

Action plan with China for the security of online goods The agenda also addresses the question of how consumer protection and “resilience” can be increased during and after the coronavirus pandemic. In dialogue with platform operators and other stakeholders, the Commission wants to continue making life difficult for fraudsters and analyze the longer-term effects of the disease on the behavior of citizens.

Innovative online tools will improve the national authorities enable them to take action against illegal online business practices and identify unsafe products, it said. 2021 the Commission also intends to develop an action plan with China to increase the safety of goods sold online. (bme)