Mateusz Grochowski of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law; Yale Law School; Polish Academy of Sciences – Institute of Legal Studies; Agnieszka Jabłonowska of the University of Lodz – Faculty of Law and Administration; European University Institute – Department of Law (LAW); Francesca Lagioia of the European University Institute – Department of Law (LAW); University of Bologna – Research Center of History of Law, Philosophy and Sociology of Law, and Computer Science and Law (CIRSFID); and Giovanni Sartor of the European University Institute Law Department have written Algorithmic Price Discrimination and Consumer Protection. A Digital Arms Race?, Technology and Regulation 36 (2022), Special Issue: Should Data Drive Private Law?. Here is the abstract:
Online market players are gradually gaining the capacity to adapt prices dynamically based on knowledge generated through vast amounts of data, so that, theoretically, every individual consumer can be charged the maximum price he or she is willing to pay. This has downsides for markets and society. European Union law insufficiently addresses these issues. Consumer-empowering technologies may help counter algorithmic price discrimination. We advocate for regulation to make the arms race between consumers and sellers more balanced by strengthening the digital tools available to consumer protection actors and to limit the battlefield by clarifying and refining the applicable rules and defining clearer categories of impermissible behaviours.
