Consumer Protection

Empowering Consumers in the EU

Everyone is a consumer, since we all purchase goods and services for our personal use. Our interests as consumers can be harmed in a myriad of ways, for example when products are unsafe, when companies resort to unfair market practices, or when they provide us with incomplete or incorrect information. For decades, consumer organisations have fought to protect consumer interests, both at the national and European level. While a lot of progress has been made, new challenges constantly emerge. Starting in early 2019, I have done research into the history of BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation. As a research associate at the European University Institute's Department of Law, I also contributed to the research project CLAUDETTE, a machine learning powered analysis of consumer contracts and privacy policies.

The Early Years of the European Consumer Organisation BEUC

The Bureau européen des unions de consommateurs (BEUC) was founded in 1962 to represent European consumer organisations in Brussels. Based on archival research, I reconstructed the evolution of BEUC from its foundation to the mid-1980s. During the first decade of its existence, BEUC was a small and loosely organised alliance of European consumer organisations, struggling to make an impact. Thanks in part to the expansion of the EEC in 1973 and the accession of the British and Danish consumer organisations, BEUC finally established its own permanent office in Brussels. This contributed to increased professionalisation and a diversification of BEUC’s activities. BEUC’s succesful call for a veal boycott in response to the 1980 growth hormone scandal cemented its status as the prime defender of consumer interests at the European level, both in the European institutions and in the media.

Consumer Empowerment and AI

Whenever you use online services, or even when you just visit a website, companies demand you to read and accept their terms and conditions, as well as their privacy policy. If you visit several websites a day and want to know what exactly you consent to, you would have to read hundreds of pages. Since this is impossible for a human being with a job and a life, alternatives have to be found to make sure companies do not make you 'accept' things that are unfair, or even plainly unlawful. 
This is why the team of the automated CLAUse DETecTer 'CLAUDETTE' analysed potentially unfair clauses in terms of service and privacy policies. The goal is to develop a machine learning tool that enables consumer to quickly assess whether what they agree to is fair according to the EU's unfair contractual terms law and personal data protection law (GDPR).