Role of Private Law for Europe’s Digital Future

Abstract

The digital transformation of the EU single market actualizes numerous issues regarding the regulation of private law relations in the digital market. The key issue is whether the digital transformation requires a complex reform of the existing rules brought by the European legislator to provide for individual rights in various private law relations in the offline market (e.g., consumer contracts, labor contracts, and contracts on the provision of services in individual economic sectors), and if that is the case, how this reform must be implemented. An answer to this question mostly depends on whether, by the existing legal instruments in the digital market, namely efficient protection and enforcement of fundamental rights, EU market freedoms and individual rights can be ensured in the same way they are protected in the offline market. This paper deals with the changes in the regulation of EU private law relations caused by the establishment of the Digital Single Market. The main aim is to consider the perspectives of the EU private law in the digital transition, and whether a different approach to the regulation of private law relations in the digital market is necessary.