Burden of Proof in Consumer Law - 3rd Annual Digital Consumer Event

On 30 November, DG JUST held the third edition of the Annual Digital Consumer Event. The event also included panel discussions on two topics in the framework of the Commission’s Digital Fairness Fitness Check (potentially used as a basis for a Digital Fairness Act): the burden of proof in consumer law and the addictive design of digital services. The discussions in both panels showed the views of different stakeholders (academia, consumer and business organisations, national public authorities). These included calls for updating the current legal framework in line with digital trends. Panellists also highlighted the need to ensure effective enforcement and addressing new challenges in digital environments, such as personalisation and digital asymmetries between traders and consumers.
This is an edited (transformative) version of the European Commission meeting, created to improve accessibility. Edits that add transformative value include cutting repetition, silences, and stutters; restructuring the content by theme and topic; adding on-screen context; and enhancing video and audio quality. This edited version does not distort the meaning or message of the original video.

Digital Fairness Act
Website: https://digitalfairnessact.com/
Newsletter: https://newsletter.digitalfairnessact.com/

Burden of proof in consumer law Panellists:
Ursula Pachl (BEUC),
Jelle van Loo (Economic Inspection, Belgium),
Peter Rott (University of Oldenburg),
Jolanda Girzl (Ecommerce Europe).
Chaired by Martins Prieditis (European Commission).

The discussion focussed on the following points:
• The need for effective public enforcement, especially of the UCPD. Some panellists stressed the importance of procedural rules that help the authorities in gathering the evidence. It is important that traders present such information about their activities that can be effectively processed by the authorities.
• The panellists agreed that online and offline environments should be regulated together as the burden of proof is relevant for both.
• Some panellists emphasised that digital markets and the complex technology (e.g., complicated algorithms) create information asymmetries between consumers and traders. To remedy this asymmetry, the burden of proof should be placed on the trader. The Digital Content Directive already provides for a reversal of the burden of proof based on this reasoning. The same should be used in relation to the digital environment in general. Moreover, the increased personalisation makes it difficult for consumers to have a clear point of reference. 3 The panellists discussed how consumer legislation could draw inspiration from other areas of law, regarding the alleviation of burden of proof and the principle of compliance by design. In particular, the ongoing revision of the Product Liability Directive, case law on medical malpractice and the Sale of Goods Directive were highlighted as examples. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Shopify case of the Consumer Protection Co-operation (CPC) network could serve as inspiration for introducing a principle of compliance by design.
• Some panellists emphasised the importance of legal certainty, so that the procedure in legal claims is clear and predictable for both consumers and traders. Also the interests of small businesses with limited resources and of law-abiding businesses in general should be
considered.

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Uploaded by James Tamim, EU Digital Policy analyst.

© European Union, 2024
Edits applied by Europe Echo (transformative value add): repetition, silences, and stutters removed; content restructured by theme so questions and answers stay together and topics remain organised (some sections may be reordered to separate topics more clearly); on-screen context and detailed descriptions added (topic labels, chapters, captions) to make long briefings easier to follow; and video/audio quality enhanced (cropping, splicing the correct audio-language tracks, voice isolation, and colour correction).

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