CoPE Project (Consumer Protection Effectiveness) - Towards a Digital Effectiveness of Consumer Protection Through Self-Executing Remedies and ADR Systems: An Empirical Approach to European Private Law

The main assumption of the project is that innovative technologies may significantly rise the effectiveness of consumer protection in two ways: 1. Favoring self-help instruments and out-of-court settlement of consumers' disputes with the suppliers of goods and services; 2. Gathering information scattered on the marketplace about unfair contract terms and unfair dealing, and funneling it to the jurisdiction and/or agencies endowed with supervisory powers. Therefore, a combination of private enforcement of consumers’ rights and public enforcement of market regulation is recommended as a response to the criticism voiced by a strand of law and economics literature about the inefficiency and inefficacy of the information rules provided for by European private law. The research project envisages to combine a horizontal approach with a vertical approach to analysis. The horizontal approach is directed to cut across single markets, taking into consideration the entire activity that contributes to the consumption process; the vertical approach focuses, instead, on some specific markets that, in view of the nature of the goods and services traded, are intensively regulated by a public authority and often subject to an administrative system of supervision (e.g., banking and payments, insurance, investments, telecommunications, etc.). The scope of each research unit is spelt out accordingly. The proposed research will be conducted through methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of law. The empirical analysis and quantitative methods underlying the research project draw on an understanding of ‘effectiveness’ of law that impinges on all the factors (psychological, sociological, economic, reputational) that concur to foster abidance by law in a social environment. This approach takes as a point of reference, on the one hand, the conflict of interests between the various market players and, on the other, the active role of consumers both in ex post enforcement of legal rules and in ex ante regulation of markets. To this end, the role of associations, businesses, and professionals is key to achieve an appropriate combination of private enforcement and public enforcement instruments. The criteria employed to select the members of the units, besides their previous and on-going research activities, include the following ones: 1. Gender diversity and balance; 2. Academic seniority (spanning full professors, associate professors, researchers, research fellows); 3. Multidisciplinarity and coverage of the different scientific sectors involved (spanning IUS/01, IUS/02, IUS/04, SECS-P/07, SECS-P/08, SECS-P/11, SECS-S/01, SECS-S/06, SPS/09, SPS/12). The research units will also be supported by an interdisciplinary team, which will serve as an internally coordinated cross-sectional group, cooperating with all the single units and help them to work towards the same goals. This is expected to produce valuable benefits for the implementation of the project.