Empowering the Vulnerable in the European Union: Collective Redress Against Digital Exploitation
摘要
The digital age has turned individuals into both consumers and data subjects, exposing them to systemic exploitation that existing legal frameworks are ill-equipped to address. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) place heavy emphasis on rational agency and informed consent, yet these tools fall short in confronting the opaque and aggregated nature of harm in digital markets. This chapter conceptualises digital vulnerability as a condition embedded in digital infrastructures and argues for a shift in enforcement strategy. It proposes an EU-wide opt-out collective redress model to tackle the scale and invisibility of digital harm. By reallocating enforcement responsibility from individuals to qualified institutional actors, such mechanisms can transcend barriers like rational apathy and power asymmetry—offering not just procedural efficiency, but also structural justice.