2025/11/19 by Scattarreggia, Emanuele
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #AI #Consumer protection #Digital Transformation in Law #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI #European and International Contract Law #Liability #Smart contracts
paper · doi:10.13135/2785-7867/12837
openalex publication_date 2025/11/19 · openalex created_date 2025/12/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into smart contracts holds the potential to both enhance and exacerbate consumer protection challenges. Since the AI system embedded within the contract’s code enables a high degree of contractual personalisation – by tailoring the legal agreement to the unique characteristics of the targeted individual consumer, thanks to its capacity to process large amounts of personal and behavioural data in real time – it opens the door not only to scenarios of AI-powered consumer manipulation, but also to the promising opportunity of a consumer-centric AI. Such an AI would serve the consumer’s best interests by adapting the contract to their specific needs and preferences, while protecting them from – rather than exploiting – their information, cognitive, and digital vulnerabilities. This research aims to assess whether the EU legal framework – particularly the UCPD, UCTD, AI Act, GDPR, and DSA – adequately ensures that these technologies are designed and deployed with the consumer’s well-being at their core. The paper explores AI-related risks such as digital manipulation, personal data exploitation, and the black-box problem inherent in algorithmic opacity, while also addressing the liability challenge in cases of consumer harm. Ultimately, it seeks to answer whether AI-driven smart contracts can truly foster a high level of consumer protection in the AI era, by offering novel interpretations of the existing legal framework and advancing proposals for reform aligned with the fairness-by-design approach and informed by behavioural science insights.