Editorial: Digital Vulnerability
Timothy J. Dodsworth, Christine Riefa, Séverine Saintier, Christian Twigg‐Flesner · Journal of Consumer Policy · 2023
Keywords Vulnerability • Consumer • LegislatorsVulnerability affects us all.Yet, in the consumer sphere, legislators have often preferred to anchor regulation on the idea of the "average consumer" able to look after their own interests rather than acknowledging vulnerabilities.Recognition of vulnerability first appeared in the regulated markets, chiefly energy and finance, where protection and intervention not only focussed on the individual and personal characteristics of vulnerable consumers and their change in circumstances but also acknowledged the role that market practices play in vulnerability.By contrast, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), which finds application in non-regulated markets, only caters for a small subset of vulnerable consumers defined by reference to their personal characteristics.There, much of the most recent scholarship has come to call for a broader conceptualisation of vulnerability to offer more effective protection.Amidst the myriad of scholarship on vulnerability, spanning many different fields of enquiry, the idea that consumers may be specifically affected by digital markets has started to emerge and be studied.According to Helberger et al.