Digitalization characterizes our everyday lives. Its effects are ambiguous, however. While consumers benefit from a wide range of new products and services, they often imply a form of surveillance and pose a potential for segmentation. Polls show that consumers are irritated due to this ambiguity. They often say that they were losing control and criticize that they often needed to provide more information than necessary. These concerns do not only pose the question whether consumer privacy law is sufficient, but also whether the law is adequately enforced.
On behalf of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, a recently published study by Prof Dr Gerald Spindler (University of Göttingen), Jörn Wittmann and Prof Dr Christian Thorun (ConPolicy) takes stock of the system of consumer privacy law enforcement in Germany.
The study concludes that the most urgent need for action lies in three areas: individual enforcement, public law enforcement and co-regulation. Since the German government recently improved the collective law enforcement rights of consumer organizations, it is to expect that the situation will improve in this area.
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