Towards the Next Generation of Consumer Law:the ELI Guiding Principles and Model Rules on Digital Assistants for Consumer Contracts (editorial)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Towards the Next Generation of Consumer Law: the ELI Guiding Principles and Model Rules on Digital Assistants for Consumer ContractsFollowing the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) has not faded.Generative AI (GenAI) has caused considerable excitement as well as equally considerable concerns, 1 and has pushed AI technologies firmly onto the agenda for lawmakers around the Globe, not least in the EU. 2 As well as causing excitement about the potential impact of recent advances in AI technologies, long-running academic discussions have been given fresh impetus.One such discussion is the potential of digital technologies for the automation of contracting, including the crucial process of contract formation.3 The legal implications of such a development have been discussed extensively for the best part of three decades, 4 but the state of digital technologies, including AI, that has now been reached has made contract automation a more realistic prospect.In particular, consumers might soon have the opportunity of acquiring a digital assistant that can take over some of their routine contracts (e. g., weekly groceries) or undertake specific tasks (e. g., booking travel arrangements).Whilst the development of such applications is still in its infancy, some progress can be expected soon, not least because of the wider focus on the potential development of "AI Agents" for the automation of a variety of increasingly complex tasks in a proactive and more autonomous manner.5 As this technology evolves, additional questions might arise, e. g. whether the consumer image of the "reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect consumer" in EU Law would still be relevant once consumers are able to use AI agents with advanced information gathering and processing capabilities.6 With such a development on the horizon, there is, for once, a unique opportunity to ensure that consumer law is not only ready for the arrival of contract automation through digital assistants, 7 but 1 Including for consumer law scholars: see e. g.,
Authors: Busch, Christoph, Marie Jull Sørensen, Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Teresa, Twigg-Flesner, Christian
Institutions: Osnabrück University, University of Warwick
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7113215594