Skip to main content
Article
The Erosion of Autonomy in Online Consumer Transactions
Law, Innovation and Technology
  • Eliza MIK, Singapore Management University
Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
4-2016
Abstract

Online businesses influence consumer behaviour by means of a wide range of technologies that determine what information is displayed as well as how and when it is displayed. This creates an unprecedented power imbalance between the transacting parties, raising questions not only about the permissible levels of procedural exploitation in contract law, together with the adequacy of existing consumer protections but also about the impact of technology on consumer autonomy. There is, however, no single technology that threatens the latter. It is the combined, mutually-enforcing effect of multiple technologies that influence consumer choices at different stages in the transacting process, creating an environment of ambient and pervasive manipulation. It starts the moment consumers enter a search term (autocomplete), proceeds through the display of search results (search engine bias), the speed with which a website appears on the screen (traffic management) and concludes with the layout of elements on a website (interface design), to name a few.

Keywords
  • e-commerce,
  • consumer protection,
  • technological nudges,
  • behavioural advertising
Identifier
10.1080/17579961.2016.1161893
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Citation Information
Eliza MIK. "The Erosion of Autonomy in Online Consumer Transactions" Law, Innovation and Technology Vol. 8 Iss. 1 (2016) p. 1 - 38 ISSN: 1757-9961
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/elizamik/30/