JOURNAL OF CONSUMER POLICY最新文献

As the share of renewable energy sources, which are weather dependent and consequently volatile, continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to explore strategies for organising both electricity production and consumption to ensure system stability. People’s flexibility in their energy consumption is one option to regulate the system. To better understand people’s willingness to align their electricity-consuming activities with a flexible pricing system, an online survey with 962 respondents was conducted. The analysis focused on the factors influencing their willingness to shift electricity-consuming activities away from peak hours, as well as the maximum shift duration of using certain devices. The results indicate that people with more flexible lifestyles and those who perceive shifting activities as taking less effort are more willing to shift their activities and indicate longer shift durations. The data also show that attitudes towards the environment, as well as financial, ecological, and motivational factors, play a role in explaining the variance in the willingness to shift and the shift duration. To conclude, increasing flexibility in everyday life could make a valuable contribution to the optimal use of electricity resources.

Abstract

It has been shown that consumers often underinvest in energy efficiency despite net benefits over the longer term. One possible explanation is that they do not properly understand energy information when provided in physical units, as in most energy labels. Prior studies have investigated the effect of reframing energy information into monetary units. Outcomes are mixed, and it is unclear whether this is due to the use of different products, methodologies or to studies being conducted in countries with different energy prices and labelling standards. This paper overcomes this ambiguity by testing the effect of providing monetary energy information using the same experiment in a multi-country setting. Results show that the intervention’s effectiveness varies considerably across countries. Moreover, they highlight the presence of within-country heterogeneities based on demographic characteristics, with monetary information being more effective for high-usage households but seemingly crowding out the motivation of those whose purchasing decisions depend on environmental considerations.

Abstract

The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons regarding the processing of personal data (GDPR) is one of the key fundamental pieces of European legislation to protect human rights and freedoms. However, the development of AI systems that are capable of collecting and processing large amounts of data and predicting user habits and emotional states has affected traditional legal categories and tested their resilience. This paper assesses the limits of the current formulation of the GDPR which does not take expressly into account the category of inferred data as a special category of data. Furthermore, it questions whether the toolbox put in place by the GDPR is still effective in protecting data subjects from practices such as neuromarketing and eye-tracking systems. It shows that it is certainly the essential starting point, but that, on the other hand, cannot be spared criticism. For this, in the recent years, the European legislator has adopted further legislations including, in particular, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). Although representing a step forward in protection against such technologies, they each have critical aspects that need to be considered.

This controlled intervention study focused on optimizing a school lunch menu to achieve a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The objective was to evaluate the impact of introducing a low-carbon menu on pupils’ acceptance of school meals, as well as to assess whether providing information about the menu change independently influenced pupils’ acceptance. The study was conducted across six compulsory schools in a Swedish municipality, divided into three groups: schools implementing a menu change only (Menu), schools implementing a menu change with clear information provided to pupils (Menu + Info), and control schools serving the standard menu (Control). During a seven-week baseline period, all schools served the standard menu. Subsequently, for seven weeks, Menu and Menu + Info schools transitioned to a low-carbon menu achieved through the utilization of low-carbon recipes—reducing the proportion of food items with significant climate footprints while maintaining the recommended nutritional standards. In Menu + Info schools, pupils were presented with an informative video about the menu change during class. The acceptance of the low-carbon menu was evaluated through daily measurements of food consumption, plate waste, and meal satisfaction surveys. The study’s findings revealed that neither the menu change nor the information significantly affected the pupils’ acceptance of the new menu. These results align with prior studies, reinforcing the viability of employing low-carbon recipes to reduce the climate footprint of school meals. Moreover, this study demonstrates that providing supplemental information for transparency or educational purposes can be implemented without adversely affecting menu acceptance.

Commercial practices that exploit consumer behavioural biases (behavioural exploitation) are an increasingly prevalent issue in online choice architectures. EU policymakers have started to expressly regulate such practices. What remains unclear about this type of regulation is when an online choice architecture exploits biased consumers. What is the legal meaning and significance of exploitation in the digital environment? Even though the concept of exploitation is frequently used in scholarship concerning behavioural exploitation such as “dark patterns”, it is rarely defined. The concept’s normativity is mostly ignored, remains underdeveloped, and lacks solid foundations. This Article aims to close this gap by developing a theory of exploitation for (behavioural) consumer law in the EU that applies to online choice architectures and unfair commercial practices in general. The Article eschews welfare analysis and instead relies on the philosophical discourse on exploitation theory. Even though this discourse is mostly ignored by the literature, the Article submits that this analytical framework fits better with the existing goals and scheme of EU consumer law compared to an approach to legal analysis that is driven by promoting consumer welfare through market efficiency. Ultimately, the Article defends the autonomy theory of exploitation and contends that regulating behavioural exploitation in online choice architectures means regulating for autonomy.

Nudges are increasingly used to encourage sustainable and often meat-free diets. Interventions to reduce people’s meat consumption are motivated by concerns about health, animal welfare, and the environment. However, dietary choices are of personal and cultural significance, and not everybody wants to be nudged towards a plant-based diet. Nudging has been criticised for being paternalistic, manipulative, and a violation of personal autonomy, amongst other points. It is important to ask whether it is ethical to nudge people towards plant-based diets or whether it is unethical not to do so. Using the FORGOOD ethics framework, this paper organises diverse ethical arguments both in favour and against nudging people towards plant-based diets into seven dimensions: fairness, openness, respect, goals, opinions, options, and delegation. We propose that policymakers, researchers, retailers, restaurant managers, and others who design food menus, set food defaults, decide about which labels to use, and design food choice architectures in other ways should use the presented arguments to reflect on whether nudging people towards plant-based diets is ethical.

Mass injuries caused by the violations of multinational firms are becoming more and more common in today’s globalised economy as goods and services are sold worldwide, and the harm these goods and services cause affects many widely scattered victims in different countries. Even if the same or almost identical factual situations injure consumers worldwide, whether they obtain any remedies varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as each country designs its class action procedure differently. In order to overcome jurisdictional variations and compensate consumers with small claims in a more effective and efficient manner, this article deliberates on the idea of incorporating blockchain-based dispute resolution methods into class action proceedings. In this light, the article discusses to what extent blockchain-based dispute resolution systems can be used in class actions to provide better access to justice to consumers at the global level.

Background: High-flow vascular accesses may contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. Since shuntflow (Qa) varies between vascular access types, the current study aims to investigate differences in left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), systolic and diastolic function parameters, and all-cause mortality between patients with a lower-arm arteriovenous fistula (AVF), an upper-arm AVF, and an arteriovenous graft (AVG).

Methods: A post hoc analysis of 100 patients was performed in a single-center, prospective observational study. Echocardiography examinations were performed prior to the dialysis session. Qa measurements were performed using ultrasound dilution. Patient groups were categorized by vascular access type. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the association of shunt type with all-cause mortality with adjustment for potential confounders including, amongst others, age, sex, diabetes, the duration of hemodialysis treatment, shunt vintage, and Qa.

Results: Patients with an upper-arm AVF had significantly (p < 0.001) higher Qa (median 1902, IQR 1223-2508 ml/min) compared to patients with a lower-arm AVF (median 891, IQR 696-1414 ml/min) and patients with an AVG (median 881, IQR 580-1157 ml/min). The proportion of patients with LVH and systolic and diastolic echocardiographic parameters did not differ significantly between groups. Survival analysis showed that an upper-arm AVF was associated with a significantly lower all-cause mortality (p = 0.04) compared to a lower-arm AVF.

Conclusions: Patients with an upper-arm fistula had a higher Qa but similar systolic and diastolic cardiac function. Patients with an upper-arm fistula had a significantly lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with patients with a lower-arm fistula.