Consumer Protection Safeguards after the AI Act

Abstract

The long-awaited introduction of the AI Act, notwithstanding its originality, does not introduce any regulation outside the existing framework. It supplements the safeguards provided in numerous sectors of the EU legislation, inter alia, consumer protection. An examination of the basic EU law along with national legislation of the most influential legal orders, i.e. the French and German one, and model rules of the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR)confirms that the new AI Act sheds light on pre-existing vague legal concepts. In this respect, this novel piece of legislation promotes a better understanding of traditional notions of law applicable to the modern digital reality without introducing totally new rules. Accordingly, certainty of law is reinforced where consumer protection had languished, not because of legislative shortage, but for facts and situations described as necessary conditions of certain rights were contested on the basis of contrary possible interpretations of decisive terms. Ultimately, the very importance of the AI act regarding consumer protection lies not in the introduction of new rights and obligations, but in a multiple practical assistance to the implementation of existing rules adjusting thus the traditional legal concepts with technological development beyond their original scope.