scholarly journals Consumers contracting with other consumers in the sharing economy: fill in the gaps in the legal framework or switch to the blockchain model?

2019 ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Hervé Jacquemin
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive ◽  
Right Of Withdrawal ◽  
Other Consumers

Numerous legal provisions were enacted at an EU level in order to protect consumers contracting with professionals, especially in a digital environment (see, in particular, the protection measures provided by directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights; directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices; directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce, etc.). With the development of the web 2.0 and the so-called “sharing economy”, consumers are now entitled to easily conclude agreements with other consumers through intermediation platforms. EU Consumer Acquis shall normally be applicable to the relationship between the platform and each of the peers (the seller or the provider on one hand, and the buyer or the recipient on the other hand), with the exclusion of C2C relationships. The objective of this paper is to highlight the potential issues and gaps in the context of consumer protection (lack of information, warranty issues, no right of withdrawal, etc.), resulting from the fact that C2C agreements are normally out of scope of the EU Consumer Acquis (and only governed by the traditional contract law). Some propositions de lege ferenda will also be made, in order to ensure a higher level of consumer protection (with additional legal duties prescribed for the intermediaries, for instance). Blockchain technology and smart contracts shall also be taken into account, since they should normally give rise to a “disintermediation” process. It should however be assessed whether or not consumer protection will benefit from this disintermediation.

Consumer protection and electronic commerce in the Sultanate of Oman

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Belwal ◽  
Rahima Al Shibli ◽  
Shweta Belwal
Keyword(s):  
Electronic Commerce ◽  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Consumer Confidence ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Sultanate Of Oman ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legal Provisions

Purpose Within a larger mandate of reviewing the key global trends concerning consumer protection in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) literature, this study aims to study the legal framework concerning e-commerce and consumer protection in the Sultanate of Oman and to analyse the current regulations concerning e-commerce and consumer protection. Design/methodology/approach This study followed the normative legal research approach and resorted to the desk research process to facilitate content analysis of literature containing consumer protection legislation and regulatory provisions in Oman in particular and the rest of the world in general. Findings The study reveals that consumer protection initiatives in Oman are well entrenched for offline transactions, but are relatively new and limited for e-commerce. In spite of the promulgation of consumer protection laws, electronic transaction law and cybercrime law, consumer protection measures for e-commerce in Oman do not address a large number of the global concerns necessary to build consumer confidence and trust in the online environment. Research limitations/implications There is a dearth of information concerning Oman on this topic in the extant literature. The research also witnessed the lack of empirical data on the issue of consumer protection and e-commerce in Oman that offer a detailed database of consumer complaints and associated outcomes. Practical implications The mechanism of consumer protection in electronic transactions is not robust in many countries. Because of the lack of comprehensive and robust legislation, consumers remain vulnerable in the online contractual purchase process. Moving beyond the fragmented legislation, many countries are currently mulling an all-comprehensive e-commerce law, implications of this paper will help the policymakers in identifying the focus areas. Social implications Consumer protection is a burning global issue in this era of consumerism. It is important to build consumer trust, transparency and integrity of transactions to reduce the risk and uncertainties of purchase. Originality/value Consumer protection studies conducted in the context of Oman, hitherto, deal more with data protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, and less with legal provisions, regulations and consumer confidence. The study shares newer insights based on a systematic review of legal and business databases. It is the first study of its kind in the context of Oman and the Middle East in general.

Urgency of financial technology (Fintech) laws in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dona Budi Kharisma
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Republic

Purpose This paper aims to elaborate the reasons why Indonesia needs Law on Fintech. This paper also identifies the flaws in the existing regulations and policies on Fintech, and it also proposes an ideal framework for a fintech law as a strategy to strengthen consumer protection and to accelerate the growth of the digital economy in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This is normative research with a legal approach. Data were collected through a literature study and analyzed using legal norm method. Findings The promising potential and growth of the fintech industry in Indonesia need to be supported by a sound legal framework in the form of Indonesian Law. In regards to fintech, Indonesia does not yet have a specific law on fintech. Existing regulations in the Bank of Indonesia Regulations (PBI) and Indonesia Financial Services Authority Regulations (POJK) only regulate the technical aspects of the industry, thus providing a less sound legal power. Bank of Indonesia (BI) and Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) have limited authority in the making of regulations and the regulations produced by these institutions cannot stipulate criminal provisions. This results in inadequate consumer protection measures. The Investment Alert Task Force reported 2,018 illegal P2P lending, 472 illegal investment companies and 69 illegal pawnbrokers. The accumulation of online lending transactions in December 2019 reached a total of IDR81.50tn, seeing a 259.56% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, the amount of bad debt reached IDR13.6tn, seeing a 169.48% increase. These reasons illustrate how urgently Indonesia needs Fintech Law. Research limitations/implications This research only examines the existing Fintech regulations in Indonesia. The approach method used is normative legal research. Practical implications This research is expected to be useful for The House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (DPR), the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank of Indonesia (BI) in drafting the Fintech Law. Social implications This research is expected to increase protection for consumers, investors and providers of fintech services and accelerate the growth of the digital economy in Indonesia. Originality/value Regulating fintech in the Indonesian Law is meant to give legal certainty and better legal protection for consumers, investors and providers of fintech services. Seeing that the value of the Indonesian digital economy in 2019 has reached USD40bn (approximately IDR586tn), Indonesia is philosophically, juridically and sociologically in urgent need of Fintech Law.

scholarly journals The case for reviewing broadcasting co-regulation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110055
Author(s):  
Karen Lee ◽  
Derek Wilding
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Commercial Television ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Communications Policy ◽  
Codes Of Practice ◽  
Holistic Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Commercial Radio ◽  
Rule Making

This article applies principles from the Department of Communications’ policy review of telecommunications consumer protection to broadcasting co-regulation. The Consumer Safeguards Review establishes six principles for good regulation, including that rule-making processes should ‘enable a wide range of views to be considered’. It notes that processes for developing telecommunications codes of practice are likely to lead to ‘sub-optimal’ consumer protection measures. The article draws on original empirical research to assess development of commercial television and commercial radio codes of practice, with particular emphasis on public engagement in co-regulation. It finds the broadcasting codes of practice fail to meet the principles adopted by the Department for good co-regulation. It concludes by arguing there is a pressing need for a more holistic review of communications co-regulation, as broadcasting legislation is similar to the telecommunications legislation, and there is a risk that ‘sub-optimal’ practices could be applied in attempts to regulate digital platforms.

scholarly journals Will the imaginary active consumers please stand up? Case note to Walbusch Walter Busch: Case C-430/17 Walbusch Walter Busch GmbH & Co. KG v. Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs Frankfurt am Main eV, EU:C:2019:47

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 713-719
Author(s):  
Joasia Luzak
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Case Note ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
Frankfurt Am Main ◽  
Limited Space ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Right ◽  
Right Of Withdrawal ◽  
The Eu

The questions posed to the Court of Justice of the EU in the recent case of Walbusch Walter Busch asked what qualifies as the means of communication with a limited space or time to display the information and how detailed the disclosure on the right of withdrawal needs to be on such a medium. The judgment in this case had to strike a balance between not limiting traders’ opportunities to use technological advances to reach consumers and one of the main objectives of consumer protection: ensuring consumers have a chance to make fully informed transactional decisions.

The average consumer is not a lawyer! Case C-66/19 JC v Kreissparkasse Saarlouis

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-386
Author(s):  
Peter Rott
Keyword(s):  
German Law ◽  
Withdrawal Period ◽  
Average Consumer ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Legal Competence ◽  
The Right ◽  
Credit Law ◽  
Right Of Withdrawal ◽  
Federal Supreme

The Court of Justice had to decide on the transparency of information on the right of withdrawal in consumer credit law. Under German law, the creditor could describe the start of the withdrawal period by mere reference to a legal provision which then referred to other legal provisions which the consumer then had to interpret, which the Court of Justice considered to be lacking in transparency. In the background, there was a conflict between the referring court and the German Federal Supreme Court on the legal competence of the average consumer that the Court of Justice decided in favour of the referring court.

scholarly journals MODERN TRANSFORMATION AND PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF TAXATION OF THE FINANCIAL RESULTS OF INSURERS IN UKRAINE

2017 ◽  
pp. 19-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleksandr KVASOVSKYI ◽  
Mykola STETSKO
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Direct Taxation ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Before And After

Introduction. Today the problem of establishing an effective taxation technology of domestic insurers' financial results has not been finally solved. That technology would ensure achieving fiscal objectives of budget revenues improvement and the implementation of the regulatory capacity of the tax regime to enhance the development of the insurance market in Ukraine on the principles of transparency and legitimacy of the business. Purpose. The purpose of the article is critical analysis of recent transformations in the method of taxation of the financial performance of insurance companies in Ukraine, assessment of their impact on the dynamics of national insurance organizations budget revenues in recent years, a clear identification of legal conflicts and problematic aspects of the insurers' profit and income tax collecting procedures with a view to their elimination. Results. The article looks into the major differences in innovation and methodological approaches to taxation of the financial performance of domestic insurers before and after January 1, 2015. The work characterizes the dynamics of absolute and relative indicators of income tax on profits from insurance companies to the consolidated budget of Ukraine in 2012-2016 (compared to banks) from a position of impact of changes in tax regime for insurers. The research also revealed a number of legal contradictions and problematic issues in the current procedure for determining taxable profits of insurance organizations in the consideration of tax differences, calculating the income tax of taxable item in the neglecting of the revenues and transmission of insurance payments (contributions, premiums) for reinsurance operations and so on. Conclusion. A number of recommendations to improve the technology of direct taxation of insurance companies' corporate income tax and indirect taxes on insurance premiums, namely: clear distinction of mentioned fiscal duties; revision of the legal framework regarding the collection of insurers’ income tax (detailed definition of the list of costs for the calculation of financial results of the insurer before tax, establishing a list and approval of scientifically based methods of calculating insurance reserves for the calculation of taxable income, specification of legal provisions regarding taxation of insurance companies that specialize in life insurance, and longterm pension insurance); the introduction of preferential tax treatment of small profit insurance organizations through the establishment of progressive tax rates; gradual reduction of the effective tax rate for insurance companies.

scholarly journals IoT-CCAC: a blockchain-based consortium capability access control approach for IoT

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e455
Author(s):  
Mohammed Amine Bouras ◽  
Boming Xia ◽  
Adnan Omer Abuassba ◽  
Huansheng Ning ◽  
Qinghua Lu
Keyword(s):  
Access Control ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Intrinsic Feature

Access control is a critical aspect for improving the privacy and security of IoT systems. A consortium is a public or private association or a group of two or more institutes, businesses, and companies that collaborate to achieve common goals or form a resource pool to enable the sharing economy aspect. However, most access control methods are based on centralized solutions, which may lead to problems like data leakage and single-point failure. Blockchain technology has its intrinsic feature of distribution, which can be used to tackle the centralized problem of traditional access control schemes. Nevertheless, blockchain itself comes with certain limitations like the lack of scalability and poor performance. To bridge the gap of these problems, here we present a decentralized capability-based access control architecture designed for IoT consortium networks named IoT-CCAC. A blockchain-based database is utilized in our solution for better performance since it exhibits favorable features of both blockchain and conventional databases. The performance of IoT-CCAC is evaluated to demonstrate the superiority of our proposed architecture. IoT-CCAC is a secure, salable, effective solution that meets the enterprise and business’s needs and adaptable for different IoT interoperability scenarios.

scholarly journals Sharing communities – Community currency in the sharing economy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Szemerédi ◽  
Tibor Tatay
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Efficient Operation ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Community Currency ◽  
Efficient Alternative ◽  
Further Development

AbstractFor the further development and more efficient operation of the sharing economy, a fast and inexpensive peer-to-peer payment system is an essential element. The aim of this study is to outline a prototype that ensures the automation and decentralization of processes through smart contracts without blockchain technology. The model has been built based on the narrative that a community currency created through smart contracts can promote genuine practices of sharing as opposed to the profit-oriented approach that most of the currently operating sharing economy platforms have. Features of the model, such as ease of use, high-speed transactions without transaction cost are benefits that can provide a more efficient alternative to the traditional or to the cryptocurrency-based centralized sharing economy platforms.

scholarly journals Social Credit System in the People's Republic of China: normative legal framework and principles of functionality

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-53
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Tatiana Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social

This article examines the normative legal framework and principles of functionality of the Social Credit System that is currently being implemented in the People's Republic of China. For the first time in legal science, the Social Credit System is viewed not as an organizational and regulatory technique that in one or another way is related to law, but rather as an independent legal institution relevant to the branch of administrative law. The application of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allows describing the hierarchy of sources of the Chinese law pertaining to social credit mechanisms and procedures, as well as giving characteristics to major provisions of the corresponding normative acts. The peculiarities of legal regulation of the mechanisms and procedures that comprise the Social Credit System in PRC include the following aspects: sublegislative nature of such regulation, prevalence of joint lawmaking, focal role of normative legal acts of the Chinese government, declarative character and ambiguity of multiple legal provisions with regards to the Social Credit System. The author underline the specificity of interpretation of the normative legal acts of the People's Republic of China, usage by the lawmaking branches of moral categories in formulation of provisions for regulation of elaboration and implementation of the social credit mechanisms. The provisions of governmental and departmental normative legal acts pertaining to the Social Credit System are correlated with the provisions of the current Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

scholarly journals Competitive advantage of the sustainable digital economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 250 ◽  
pp. 06004
Author(s):  
Oksana Nurova ◽  
Tatiana Freze
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Vocational Training ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
High Tech ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Banking And Finance ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Wide Range

This research focuses on factors that influence the competitive advantage of the sustainable digital economy. Digital economy helped to speed up the exchange of information flows which, in turn, impacted on the creation the new forms of business and socio-economic interactions. Such sectors as banking and finance or hospitality and services are all influenced by the advancements of the digital economy that include sharing economy or Blockchain technology and its related applications. In this article, we show that digital economy is more sustainable due to the fact that it requires less energy sources and can itself contribute to the formation of the green economy and the acceptance of the renewable energy. All these features constitute its competitive advantage that needs to be further supported and fostered. In addition, we discuss key strategies and the development of skills to adapt to a digital economy and provide an overview of high-quality training for high-tech workers. It was assumed that in future, people would be able to easily acquire new skills through vocational training and vocational training. However, the spread of digital technologies has changed the way we work and has increased the need for high-quality training for workers in a wide range of professions. To use such technologies effectively, workers in an increasing number of sectors and professions need both general and advanced ICT skills.

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