Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330794 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Consumer Policy [ISSN:] 1573-0700 [Volume:] 48 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 297-314
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
Digital infrastructures, such as online platforms, and digital services, such as scoring, and the algorithms behind them, have often been described as a "black box." This is a problem for consumers and consumer organizations that wish to enforce their individual rights or collective remedies in civil law litigation. The reason is that traditionally, the burden of proof is normally on the claimant, who has to prove those elements of a legal provision that act in their favour, whereas the burden of proof for defences is normally on the defendant. Burden of proof has therefore been identified as a major obstacle in the fight against digital unfairness. This means, at the same time, that the important element of private enforcement is insufficient, which hampers the effectiveness of EU consumer law in general. On this background, this article discusses, after some preliminary remarks addressing the scope of the problem, (1) to what extent EU law already requires alleviations of the burden of proof in litigation around unfair digital commercial practices in national courts and (2) how a tailor-made regime of specific provisions related to the burden of proof could, or should, be designed.
Subjects: 
Burden of proof
Digital services
Product Liability Directive
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.