Szabó Lívia: The Consumer’s Contractual Position in the Context of Digital Transformation: Towards a Reconsideration of the Concept of the Consumer
2026/10
The increasingly prominent digital transformation of the 21th century necessarily raises the question of whether the concept of the consumer in its classical sense (while left unchanged) is capable of adequately reflecting the contractual power relations emerging in the digital age. At first sight, the question may appear straightforward to answer, since both EU law and Hungarian private law essentially provide clear normative definitions—at least as regards the general rules. The legal dilemma becomes more complex, however, when the legal-policy rationales underlying consumer protection—in particular, the effective operation of measures designed to redress the imbalance between contracting parties—are also taken into account. If enhanced protection arising from consumers’ weaker position is indeed founded on vulnerability, weaker bargaining power and information asymmetry, the question arises whether these ‘characteristics’ can be attributed exclusively to consumers in the traditional sense. The proliferation of digital content and digital services, together with the emergence of new types of consumer contracts associated with them, makes it appropriate to reconsider this issue.