How does the Digital Age change Consumer Law?

The digital age has brought profound changes to consumer rights and the economic order in Brazil. Digitalization has impacted the way consumers interact with companies, products, and services, and has significantly altered market patterns and economic dynamics. Everything has changed, from wholesale trade to the final consumer, who chooses a product and completes the purchase in four or five clicks.

Consumer Rights in the Digital Age

1. E-Commerce and Consumer Protection:

The expansion of e-commerce has increased the need to ensure consumer protection on digital platforms. The E-commerce Law (Decree No. 7,962/2013) complements the Consumer Protection Code (CDC), establishing specific rules for online purchases, including:

• Right to Information: Consumers must receive clear and accurate information about products and services, return policies, and delivery times. There is no more room for fine print; everything must be set out clearly and objectively.

• Right of withdrawal: Consumers have the right to withdraw from a purchase within 7 days of delivery of the product, with a full refund. The right of withdrawal, a topic of the CDC, took on an analogous form in E-Commerce.

2. Privacy and Data Protection:

The General Data Protection Law (LGPD), in force since 2020, was a milestone in the protection of consumers' personal data, guaranteeing:

• Transparency: Companies must disclose how consumers' data are collected, used, and protected. Collecting data without the customer's consent is illegal.

• Consent: The processing of personal data requires the consumer's explicit consent.

• Security: Companies must adopt security measures to protect personal data against unauthorized access and security incidents.

Economic Order in the Digital Age

1. Free Competition and Regulation of Digital Platforms:

The digital economy has brought new challenges for competition regulation, especially in relation to the large digital platforms (Big Techs). The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) has acted to ensure that these platforms do not abuse their market power:

• Digital Monopolies: Investigations and actions against anticompetitive practices by tech giants, such as imposing unfavorable conditions on suppliers and limiting access to markets.

• Interoperability and Portability: Policies that promote interoperability between services and data portability to facilitate the entry of new competitors into the market.

2. Innovation and Sustainable Development:

The digital age has also driven innovation and sustainable development, with policies aimed at:

• Technological Innovation: Incentives for startups and technology companies, aiming to foster innovation and the development of new digital solutions.

• Sustainability: Use of technology to promote sustainable business practices and reduce environmental impact, such as energy management systems and circular economy initiatives. It is worth remembering: the digital economy is considered sustainable and a promoter of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Conclusion

The democratization of Web access, with more than 86% of Brazilians connected to the Internet in 2024, brings challenges as well as opportunities. The expansion of digital commerce, the livelihood of countless micro and small entrepreneurs who live off their online stores, is a reality, as is the prominence of the digital market among the retail giants, which watch this segment with ever greater attention.

All of this poses challenges. The risk of scams, with fake shopping environments, as well as the misuse of brands by hackers and fraudsters of every sort, makes even greater rigor necessary in the handling of users' data, as well as in compliance with the CDC, a vigorous law suited to Brazilian reality, but which, in the panorama of the digital revolution, must remain under constant updating.

Sources:

• Consumer Protection Code

• General Data Protection Law (LGPD)

• Decree No. 7,962/2013 – E-commerce

• Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE)