Università Roma Tre

The course aims to introduce students to the topic of the regulation of digital platforms, from the European private law perspective. It will focus mainly on consumer protection (brief references will however be made to the other relevant topics on the subject, that of personal data protection, competition, policy making).
After an introduction to the topic of digital platforms, with the definition and framing of the relevant areas (exchanges: e.g. Amazon; working life - e.g.: Teams, Zoom; social media - e.g.: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), the reference regulatory framework will be analysed, starting with the EU digital package (Digital Markets Act; Digital Services Act; the Data Governance Act). The analysis will then focus on examining the way in which the EU intends to regulate long-debated topics such as (i) the liability of online platforms; (ii) the obligations of platforms with regard to content moderation (the so-called dark pattern) and (iii) the transparency of advertising.
On the stakeholders' side, consumer protection will be extensively analysed, under the specific point of view of the so-called digital vulnerability, which is age-related (both in the sense of generational barriers of the elderly in the use of technology -grey digital divide- and in the sense of cognitive unpreparedness.
On the side of the subjects involved, consumer protection will be dealt with extensively, taking on the specific point of view of so-called digital vulnerability, correlated to age (both in the sense of the generational barriers of the elderly in the use of technology - the grey digital divide - and in the sense of the cognitive unpreparedness of the young to understand the information provided to them and thus becoming subjects that can be influenced by unfair commercial practices) and to the reference market; another part of the course will be devoted, on the side of professionals, to the obligations incumbent on the providers of digital services, starting with protection by design. Specific aspects will then be examined, such as the regulation of the activity of influencers, the regulation of payment systems on platforms (Apple Pay, Android Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay), and the regulation of unfair commercial practices.