Tailor-made consumer protection: personalisation’s impact on the granularity of consumer information

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how the use of the legal design principles and the benefits of modern technology could guide EU policymakers in drafting more effective consumer protection measures, specifically information provisions and information rules. As modern technology enables personalisation of online information, the paper explores the option for this to lead to the rejection of the one-size-fits-all approach embodied by the application of the average consumer benchmark in assessing whether the information was transparent to consumers. The author proposes to gradually oblige online traders to provide more granular, personalised information to consumers.