On the 28th of October (h. 14.00-15.00), Zihao Li (University of Glasgow) will present on Data Protection Law and Online Personalised Pricing
Abstract
With the emergence of Big Data and Machine Learning techniques, sellers and online platforms increasingly deploy algorithmic pricing to tailor pricing for customers in real time. Certain types of online algorithmic pricing pose a new threat to fundamental values of privacy and non-discrimination, which often leads to legal and ethical concerns and outrage. This paper firstly reviews current concept and definition of algorithmic pricing in data protection legal scholarship. It points out the potential drawbacks of the current concept and definition and introduces the concept ‘online algorithmic pricing’ and its definition. Meanwhile, this research introduces a new taxonomy of online algorithmic pricing through the processing of data type. By following the taxonomy, it finds that there is a new form of algorithmic pricing: affinity-based algorithmic pricing, which may greatly erode the foundation of EU data protection law. Therefore, this paper chooses two potentially harmful algorithmic pricing, personal profiling-based and affinity based to examine if and to what extent, EU data protection law could protect data subject against these two algorithmic pricing. Apart from data protection law, this paper also indicates that other EU legislation may impede the exercise of data protection rights. Finally, this paper provides four potential resolutions for this issue from group privacy, remit of data protection law, ex-ante measures in data protection and the comprehensive approach perspectives.
Participation is free, but registration is mandatory. You can register here.
Zihao Li is a current PhD candidate at School of Law, University of Glasgow. He obtained his double Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science (BSc) and Law (LLB) in 2017, both from Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China. During 2015, he studied as an exchange student in University of California, Irvine. He also holds LL.M. in Intellectual Property and Digital Economy from University of Glasgow. His research interests include information technology law, Internet law and cybersecurity with particular focus on data protection law. Zihao is also a member of the CREATe Centre and the Editorial Board Chair of IP society in University of Glasgow. Based on his interdisciplinary background, Zihao’s research aims to explore what is the best way for China to protect data in the increasingly widespread application of big data era
The event will be moderated by Fabrizio Esposito.
Fabrizio is Assistant Professor in Private Law at the NOVA School of Law, a member of the NOVA Consumer Lab, and coordinator of the MetaLawEcon network. Fabrizio graduated in law at Bocconi University in 2011. After working for two years in civil and commercial litigation, he was admitted as a researcher at the European University Institute, where he obtained an LLM in Comparative, European and International Law (2015) and his PhD in 2018 after defending his dissertation, which opens new frontiers in research about law and economics.
Before joining the NOVA School of Law, Fabrizio was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Universitè Catholique de Louvain, where he joined the PROSECO Project. He held visiting positions at the University of Helsinki and Pisa, and was a Global Visiting Fellow at UCLouvain.
His research focuses on the relationship between private law, economic law, EU law, economics and legal theory with a particular focus on consumer and antitrust law and digital markets. He is currently working on price personalization, the use of theories of harm in consumer law, and will publish a monograph showing how and why legal and economic research shall be united in diversity.
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