Yesterday, together with three colleagues, I attended a conference on 'Consumer legislation for digital products' that was organised by DG Justice in Brussels. At this conference we presented the results of a study on the topic that we carried out on request of the European Commission. This study was a joint project of the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL) and the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and concerned the legal framework for digital products, such as films, music, e-mail, social networking and e-books. Empirical data on problems that consumers encounter when buying and using these types of digital content were provided by Europe Economics, whose report is also available on the Commission's website.
As indicated by the Commission, 'the studies will feed into the Commission’s ongoing work aimed to ensure a stepped up enforcement of the existing legislation also to purchases of digital content and to assess the need for further possible adaptation of EU consumer legislation to changing markets'. In this field, the recently adopted Consumer Rights Directive and the proposal for an optional Common European Sales Law are of importance.
