ABSTRACT
Terms of Service (ToS) of online platforms often contain Consumer Unfriendly Terms (CUTs). The CUTs encompass clauses limiting consumers’ rights in dispute resolution, limitations on remedies, and corporations’ rights to unilaterally modify the service, delete users’ content, and benefit from their data. The ToS resemble the offline ‘boilerplate’, but given the context of their functioning – digital capitalism – they also exhibit some critical differences, rendering the context-specific analysis necessary.
This paper argues that the continued toleration of the CUTs is undesirable on economic and democratic grounds. In digital capitalism, online platforms often enjoy a monopolistic position. Further, they can (factually and legally) collect and use consumer data to shape their experience and preferences, as well as to harm their privacy and mental health …
Pałka, Przemysław, Terms of Injustice (February 15, 2023), West Virginia Law Review, volume 126.
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