E-Commerce and Consumers
Module title | E-Commerce and Consumers |
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Module code | LAWM171 |
Academic year | 2024/5 |
Credits | 15 |
Module staff | Professor Joasia Luzak (Convenor) |
Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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Duration: Weeks | 11 |
Number students taking module (anticipated) | 20 |
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Module description
Consumer law plays a critical role in modern economy; supplying protection to the vulnerable in society, providing a framework for business in retail transactions. Digitalisation exacerbated transactional imbalances, due to architectural asymmetric design of the Internet. In this module, you explore: How traits of online transactions impact the market, consumers? What measures regulators adopted to assure effective consumer protection, further stimulation of e-Commerce?
Module is suitable for law and non-law students. Particularly suitable if you want to specialise in commercial/contract/competition law, law and technology, or if you are interested in business, digitalisation and consumer behaviour.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The module aims to provide a critical understanding of the instruments of European and English consumer law adopted to address risks that consumers and markets face as a result of digitalisation, and the era of Big Data.
The intention is to analyse legal solutions considering societal context and findings from consumer behaviour and/or market research. The analysis will be conducted considering benefits/drawbacks of adopted legal solutions to both consumer protection and market efficiency. Students should then gain understanding of the impact of legal frameworks in this area not only on consumer protection but also on costs of conducting business.
The module aims to encourage students to consider conducting interdisciplinary research and developing skills going beyond traditional legal analysis (doctrinal legal research).
The content of the module will focus on the most recent legal developments and novel, emerging threats of online markets. This aims to provide students with the most up-to-date knowledge, which they then can employ in practice upon graduation.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. demonstrate deep, systematic and critical understanding of the role, aims and underlying principles of consumer law in addressing challenges of digitalisation;
- 2. demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the instruments of consumer law in addressing challenges of digitalisation;
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. demonstrate a high level of ability in selecting, integrating and presenting coherently and reflectively, relevant law and legal/theoretical arguments;
- 4. demonstrate a high level of ability in integrating and assessing information from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, legal and from other disciplines, using this to produce reasoned arguments and analysis in relation to legal and societal issues.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. demonstrate effective, confident and autonomous ability to manage relevant learning resources/ information/ learning strategies and to develop own reasoned arguments and opinions; and
- 6. communicate and engage in debate effectively and accurately, orally and in writing, in a manner appropriate to the discipline and context.
Syllabus plan
The content of the module will focus on the most recent legal developments and novel, emerging threats of online markets. Some of the issues that the module may address are, for example:
- digital vulnerability,
- the rise of online platforms and their obligations,
- new forms of online unfair commercial practices (e.g. of digital influencers, deceptive online design),
- obligations of providers of digital content and digital services.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
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20 | 130 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
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Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 20 | 10 x 2-hour weekly seminars |
Guided Independent Study | 50 | Assigned seminar readings |
Guided Independent Study | 10 | Research for and preparation of formative assessments |
Guided Independent Study | 70 | Research for and preparation of summative assessments |
Formative assessment
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
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Reflective response max of 3 written posts on ELE forum, on recent topic related developments from 3 different teaching weeks. | 3 x forum posts of no more than 165 words each | 1-6 | Oral and written feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
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100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
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Research paper Students have a choice to either: 1) Develop one of the reflective responses into a legislative proposal, drafting it in a form of an explanatory memorandum (context of the proposal, proposed legal changes, impact assessment). The module convenor selects the reflective response students should work on from all that have been submitted. Or 2) Critically discuss another topic, provided by the module convenor, which will require gathering data on digital practices in the market (some independent practical research), not only academic research.) | 100 | 2500 words | 1-6 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
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Research paper (2500 words) | Research paper (2500 words) | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- For each week, a reading list is posted on ELE indicating the mandatory and recommended reading materials, which may be looked up either in the CURIA database or through the University of Exeter Library databases. This allows to keep up to date with the most recent legal and societal developments, as most textbooks will not address these.
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- See, in particular, the Web pages of the EU Commission on: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/index_en.htm
- Case law of the European Court of Justice available at: http://curia.eu
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
- Databases: HeinOnline, Lexis, Eur-lex, Kluwer, Westlaw, ScienceDirect
Credit value | 15 |
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Module ECTS | 7.5 |
Module pre-requisites | None |
Module co-requisites | None |
NQF level (module) | 7 |
Available as distance learning? | No |
Origin date | 23/03/2023 |
Last revision date | 26/04/2024 |