Frankfurt (Oder), Alemania
The optimisation of sales practices in consumer markets through machine learning not only harboursthe potential to better match consumer preferences with products, but also risks to facilitate theexploitation of consumer weaknesses discovered via data analysis. More specifically, recent techno-logical advances have brought us to the edge of mind-reading technologies, which automaticallyanalyse mental states and adapt offers accordingly, in potentially manipulative ways. This articleshows that, in market contexts, the challenges of manipulation by algorithm necessitate an inte-grated understanding of unfair commercial practice, data protection, and privacy law. It maps theinteractions between these contiguous yet distinct fields of law, and draws on economics and com-puter science to develop a novel framework to deal with algorithmic influence. Furthermore, it criti-cally discusses the Commission proposals for the Digital Services Act and the Artificial IntelligenceAct, and suggests to complement them with more broadly applicable measures to mitigate algorith-mic manipulation.