17-02-2020 15:00
Digital advertising and consumer information

room SPINELLI 3G3
promotion on the Internet for a web page, advertising, calling through a shout, online alerting
Digital advertising and consumer information © used under the licence of shutterstock.com

With the digital revolution and in particular the ever growing online shopping sector, we notice a shift in advertising, moving from the traditional concept of a "consumer" to the "user" of websites, online platforms and social media. Users are often subject to targeted advertising that can influence their choice and constitute profiling. While advertising via traditional channels has to abide by strict rules, digital advertisement is vastly unregulated.

This has led to e.g. children being exposed to unsuitable advertisement or to social media in particular being used to promote counterfeit products.

Against this background, the aim of this event is to hear academia and stakeholders' views, both from the business side and from organisations dealing with consumer protection, on how consumers are informed and if they have a choice when it comes to online profiling (panel 1); as well as if consumers and especially vulnerable groups are protected from disguised digital advertising (panel 2).