Information Obligations and Disinformation of Consumers

Straetmans, Gert

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-18054-6_1

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 40 publications

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“…The abuse of consumer confidence will, in fact, not only result from an excess of information but also, even more surreptitiously, because of stereotypical slogans and generic formulas designed to conceal a substantial lack of protection. The consumer, trusting in the seriousness of the professional, will orient his choices, based on vague and unverifiable criteria, without any suitable information support (Straetmans, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abuse of consumer trust in the digital market and the green market: the case of green washing in the Italian legal system

Marcatajo

2022

JFC

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer some reflection on the abuse of consumer trust and the importance of control of information in the digital market and the green market. The role of the consumer as the arbiter of the market is fundamental. The abuse of consumer confidence depends, in fact, on the spread of stereotyped messages and vague and generic formulas aimed at hiding a dangerous vacuum of protection. In both markets, it is a question of giving the consumer the necessary tools to monitor the transparency of the criteria used by the trader to classify a product according to its characteristics. Design/methodology/approach Based on the analysis of an Italian case law and the European programme, the author shows how in Italy there is a dangerous lack of consumer protection. The problem is that the green consumer, as well as the online consumer, is not able to immediately verify the accuracy of the product requirements and must be able to count on the seriousness of the professional. For this reason, the European and national authorities have provided specific rules for both markets. The new proposal of directive introduces specific rules to target unfair commercial practices that mislead consumers away from sustainable consumption choices and introduced many innovations, such as the ban on greenwashing. Findings This work aims to identify the tools necessary to make the information on the products offered in the digital market and those related to green products more reliable but above all to create a common methodology on which to base them. High is the risk that sustainability will become a simple marketing strategy for companies. The difficulty consists in the absence of certain and verifiable parameters by the consumer to really measure the characteristics and the quality of a product characteristic of a product compared to competing ones. Originality/value This work examines the problem of consumer protection in the digital and green market from a new perspective, comparing the information asymmetries with respect to the professionals in the two markets. Starting from the cases of greenwashing and analysing new European remedies, the author suggests for both markets, specific answers different from those required for advertising in general. The problem here is not only the truth of the message but also the vagueness and genericity. The consumer must be in a position to control the criteria used by the professional to classify products, both in the green and the digital market. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the original work of the author and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abuse of consumer trust in the digital market and the green market: the case of green washing in the Italian legal system

Marcatajo

2022

JFC

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MaaS Passenger Multimodal Transport Under the EU Transport Law and Beyond

Murati

2023

Regulating Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in European Union

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The Unreliability of Online Review Mechanisms

Narciso

2022

J Consum Policy

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Online reviews have an undeniable impact on the market and are an important source of consumer information. From a legal perspective, online reviews actively influence consumers’ decisions to enter into a contract. Moreover, online reviews convey pre-contractual information that consumers find relevant and easy to understand, unlike the pre-contractual information disclosed as a result of EU law–based information duties. From this perspective, online reviews could potentially be seen as a complement of the flawed EU law–based information paradigm and regulatory improvement options based on reviews could be explored. However, the unreliability of online reviews is an obstacle that haunts consumers, practitioners, regulators, and academics alike. This unreliability has previously been identified as a reason not to award online reviews a more significant role in the EU law–based regulatory framework of pre-contractual information in consumer contracts. This paper explores the merits of this argument by discussing how the unreliability of online reviews is currently regulated. This paper takes a broad perspective on regulation, focusing not only on EU consumer legislation, but also looking at standardization, soft law, self-regulation, and the role of national consumer authorities. Overall, this paper argues that there are sufficient measures in place to shift the debate from the unreliability of reviews to reviews’ potential role in the protection of consumer informational interests.

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Information Obligations and Disinformation of Consumers

Cited by 4 publications

References 40 publications

Abuse of consumer trust in the digital market and the green market: the case of green washing in the Italian legal system

Abuse of consumer trust in the digital market and the green market: the case of green washing in the Italian legal system

MaaS Passenger Multimodal Transport Under the EU Transport Law and Beyond

The Unreliability of Online Review Mechanisms

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