Category Archives: European Private Law
‘“Consent” must be assessed objectively, says Court of Appeal’
The Court of Appeal has handed down an important judgment (RTM v Bonne Terre Ltd & Another [2026] EWCA Civ 488) on the meaning of ‘consent’ in the context of data protection and ePrivacy law, and overturned what had been a problematic prior judgment of the High Court, which had left many businesses, especially those […]
Jakob Hohnerlein, ‘Courts and legislation in a “constitutionalised” private law: Insights from recent German practice for strengthening the democratic side of constitutionalism’
ABSTRACT In the perpetual debate about the legitimate role of courts in a democratic state, constitutional rights have become increasingly relevant. In Germany, the doctrine of ‘horizontal effect’ of those rights has reinforced judicial creativity. The civil courts are called to interpret vague clauses of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) in a way that fully implements […]
Godefroy de Boiscuille, ‘New product liability in the Age of AI: Modernisation under a Conservative Veil’
ABSTRACT This article examines the reform of the European Product Liability Directive in the age of AI. The reform succeeds in bringing AI within the reach of product liability law. However, the proposed regime remains only partially adapted to the evidentiary and economic realities of the digital age. The modernisation effort is significant but ultimately […]
Russell Opland, ‘The Right to Be Forgotten in New Zealand Business: An Empirical Survey of Corporate Privacy Practices’
ABSTRACT This paper examines the absence of a Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) in New Zealand law, combining doctrinal analysis with original empirical research. It opens with a comparative case study of a single New Zealand company – Profile Technology Ltd – whose data practices were investigated by regulators in both New Zealand and Canada, […]
Giulia Priora, ‘Questioning the legality of personal data retention for the purpose of online copyright enforcement in the EU’
ABSTRACT The European Union (EU)’s legal stance on data retention for law enforcement purposes has recently shifted from one of strict exceptionality to a broader acceptance. Landmark rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Bezirkshauptmannschaft Landeck and La Quadrature du Net II mark a turning point, unprecedentedly allowing Member States […]
Petra Weingerl, ‘The notion of consumer in EU law: between traditional concepts and digital realities’
ABSTRACT The digital market poses significant challenges to the traditional conception of EU consumer law. This article adopts a foundational perspective, focusing on the core question underlying the consumer-law framework: who is the consumer worthy of protection? In traditional consumer transactions, the binary distinction between ‘consumer’ and ‘trader’ has generally been clear. In digital markets, […]
Ciani and Pagallo, ‘No Peace After Death? The Impact of AI-Driven Memorial Chatbots on Privacy and Data Protection’
ABSTRACT This paper examines the profitable digital afterlife industry (DAI), whose aim is to monetize the digital remains of departed internet users. Among the different services offered by such an industry, attention is drawn to AI and humanoid robots that create convincing digital surrogates of the deceased. A decade ago, Google patented robots that can […]
Borg and Sant, ‘Data scraping for scientific research purposes: legal bases under the GDPR’
ABSTRACT In research contexts, data scraping enables systematic collection of large-scale, real-world digital data. This article examines data scraping for research that is publicly funded or carried out in pursuit of public interest objectives, from the perspective of data protection law. It focuses on the GDPR requirement to identify a legal basis in order to […]
Nwabueze and White, ‘Privacy law and the dead – a reappraisal (part II)’
ABSTRACT In an earlier article, we argued that post-mortem privacy is not sufficiently protected in England and Wales. In this article, we draw from Boonin’s posthumous harm thesis and posthumous wrong thesis to develop a framework and rationale for justifying the recognition and enforcement of a privacy right post-mortem. Essentially, our theoretical framework suggests that, […]
Elias Van Gool, ‘Product Liability in a More Circular Economy: A Study of Liability for Alternative Methods of Distributing and Producing Durable Consumer Goods’
ABSTRACT Specific, more strict theories of product liability, which have now largely been maximally harmonised in the EU, have developed on the basis of a linear economic model. By using doctrinal and economic legal research, this thesis examines the state of EU product liability law and how it is tested by alternative, circular economic methods […]