Consumer Protection Enters the Digital Age: Digital Content and Services Now Expressly Regulated

Digital Content and Services Now Expressly Accounted for in Consumer Protection Act

The Consumer Protection Act now includes a new Chapter 5a, which includes specific provisions concerning digital content and services. The Consumer Protection Act previously did not expressly regulate digital content and services. In the future, Chapter 5a will include provisions on, among other things, delivering digital content and services, defects in digital content and services and the consequences of such defects, as well as on modification of digital content or services.

Digital content means, for example, computer programs, digital games and electronic books. Digital services mean, for example, cloud services and services such as social media.

It is worth noting that the new Chapter 5a applies not only to the contracts by which consumers commit to pay for digital content or services, but with certain limitations also to contracts by which consumers commit to provide personal data to traders.

Here are some of the key amendments:

New Provisions Seek to Clarify Legal State

Like the Sale of Goods Directive, the new provisions of the Digital Contracts Directive are intended to facilitate the offering and availability of content and services in the EU between Member States. Adding express provisions concerning digital content and services to the Consumer Protection Act also helps clarify the legal state, even though the Consumer Protection Act was already analogically applied to digital content and services as appropriate.

The most significant amendments are definitely the application of the new Chapter 5a to contracts by which consumers provide or commit to provide their personal data in exchange for digital content or services. Previously, the Consumer Protection Act’s provisions on delays and defects were not even analogically applied to such contracts.