Empirics and Consumer Law in Changing Markets

This book evaluates the impact of empirical research on regulation in contemporary consumer markets. It combines findings from a breadth of disciplines, including sociology, psychology and economics, focusing on their implications for legal frameworks and policies. It shows how empirical legal research may inform and improve consumer law and policy making. Bringing together leading experts in the field, the book identifies legal challenges in the consumer law domain brought by digitalization and translates empirical insights into policies. The chapters delve into methods of assessing scientific evidence and ways to improve evidence based policymaking. They also cover new developments in consumer markets such as the issue of the use of consumer data in online markets, challenges for product safety and liability in e-commerce, access to goods and services for persons with disabilities, and digital conflict resolution. The book contributes to behavioural public policy and provides important avenues for further independent empirical legal research. Empirics and Consumer Law in Changing Markets is an essential tool for policy makers, students and academics in consumer law and empirical legal research. Its state-of-the-art research into digitalization and platformization will greatly benefit legislators, consultants and policymakers in consumer law.