Unfair Business Practices in Digital Marketing and their Legal Consequences

Abstract

The article examines unfair commercial practices employed by traders in the online environment. Unfair commercial practices may adversely affect both B2B and B2C relationships, while the regulation of this area can be characterised as multilayered, encompassing elements of both private and public law. This complexity directly influences the tools and mechanisms available for the enforcement of rights by parties affected by unfair competition. Particular attention is devoted to the interaction between traditional commercial law concepts and the new obligations imposed on major digital platforms under recent regulatory instruments, which substantially shape the effectiveness of protection against unfair practices. The aim of the article is to delineate the legal framework governing unfair commercial practices, with an emphasis on the enforcement of relevant claims both vis-à-vis competitors engaging in unfair presentation of goods and services and vis-à-vis consumers or users of such goods and services. A partial objective is the analysis of the regulatory obligations of entities enabling the presentation or marketing of products, with specific regard to the duties stemming from the Digital Services Act in the context of online advertising. The verified hypothesis assumes that the regulatory framework provides an equivalent level of protection to both categories of stakeholders—traders and consumers alike.