From Smart Technologies to Smart Consumer Laws: Comparative Perspectives from Germany and the United Kingdom

This project aims at mapping emerging consumer issues in the Internet of Things (IoT), critically assessing the extent to which consumers laws in Germany and the United Kingdom address these issues, scoping the potential for mutual learning between the two legal systems, and recommending changes to the current regulatory response. In doing so, the project will explore how consumers of smart devices can be empowered through law reform and legal design.

In this perspective, the research will address four overarching themes:

(1) Things as a Service: The emergence of the IoT challenges the traditional goods-services dichotomy on which consumer laws are built. Are existing consumer laws fit for purpose in a socio-technical setting increasingly shaped by long-term contracts and new data-driven monetization models?

(2) Regulation 'by Bricking' and the Contractual Quagmire: In the IoT, smart products are persistently linked to sellers or suppliers who can remotely and automatically discontinue functionalities, downgrade the device, and even 'brick' it. An additional layer of complexity is added due to the growing number of actors involved in complex IoT systems (e.g. connected cars). How should these new types of techno-legal private ordering be regulated?

(3) Liability in the Cloud of Things: Alongside the complexity of the contractual relations in IoT systems, the emergence of smart services that depend on the automated interplay of multiple connected objects raises pressing issues of product liability. To what extent do existing liability rules provide adequate solutions for IoT-enabled injuries?

(4) Internet of Personalized Things: Smart objects can be used to profile and target consumers with unparalleled precision and efficacy. In this perspective, IoT-enabled profiling allows for personalization of products, prices or terms of service. At the same time, IoT applications could enable a more targeted use of consumer protection technologies. What does IoT-enabled personalization mean for the concept of the 'average consumer'?

These themes will be comparatively examined in relation to three use cases: smart home, wearables, and connected cars.

This project is innovative both in terms of filling a gap in the existing literature and in terms of methods. Indeed, its methodology combines doctrinal, comparative, and empirical methods. We believe that a collaboration between Germany-based and UK-based in this field is of the utmost importance because both countries are leading the way in the regulation of the IoT and both their approaches, although significantly different, constitute best practices that allow for cross-fertilization. In the time of Brexit, which threatens to leave our countries adrift, it has never been more important to nurture a culture of shared values and to converge in making sure that our consumer laws become as smart as the technologies that are shaping our lives like never before.