The Digital Economy and Legal Challenges

Abstract

This article analyses the digital economy, its treatment under competition, and the need for potential regulation. The aim of this article is to answer the question, of how a legal framework looks like that, on the one hand, prevents possible undesirable developments and undesirable side effects of digitization, while not unduly preventing opportunities and suppressing positive effects. The analysis requires an examination of the proper legal framework as well as the unique characteristics of the digital economy that this legal framework must take into account. As a result, in the first part of the paper, the particular features of the digital economy are worked out in the context of existing competition legislation. Based on this, the second part investigates the need for regulation. From the scientific methods, we have used the analytical and descriptive methods to analyze the current situation. By the comparative method, we introduce different views on legal regulation. The presented topic has not been thoroughly examined in the literature on the subject thus far, giving the chance to identify avenues for future research.

The relationship between digital development and economic growth in the European Union

“…Several studies have examined the relationship between digital development, economic growth, and smart cities, mentioning, for example, possible undesirable developments and side effects of digitization. For example, in the study [58], the authors elaborated on the specifics of the digital economy about the existing competition law. Another study draws attention to the fact that to protect the integrity of the legal system and prevent violations, clearer regulations are needed in general and also in connection with developments [59].…”

Synergies and Potential of Industry 4.0 and Automated Vehicles in Smart City Infrastructure

“…As this is a relatively new technological and scientific field, there is relatively little legal regulation in this area. In the following sections, the authors discuss the differences between automated and autonomous vehicles, the categorizations of these vehicles, how the European Union law regulates this area, and last but not least, the authors describe the synergies and potential between automated vehicles and smart cities [25]. References: Available online: https://www.cshub.com/data/news/darkbeam-data-leak (accessed on 5 March 2024) [18], https://cybernews.com/security/kidsecurity-parental-control-data-leak/ (accessed on 5 March 2024) [19], https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/criminal-hackers-leak-email-addresses-of-220-million-twitter-users (accessed on 5 March 2024) [20], https://cybernews.com/news/spotify-music-converter-puts-users-at-risk/ (accessed on 5 March 2024) [21], https://www.databreaches.net/vido-and-chatting-app-leaks-more-than-100-million-user-messages/ (accessed on 5 March 2024) [22], https://www.aquasec.com/blog/the-tickingsupply-chain-attack-bomb-of-exposed-kubernetes-secrets/ (accessed on 5 March 2024) [23], https://www.…”

Threats to Diversity of Opinion and Freedom of Expression via Social Media

“…Particularly on Facebook, the algorithm has up to now favored the impact of extreme views from a "loud minority" over the perhaps more accurate majority viewpoint, which also distorts the perception of the general atmosphere of opinion (Funta, 2019b). The reason for this is the independence of the digital attention economy (Štrkolec & Hrabčák, 2022;Funta & Buttler, 2023), which is focused on reach and clicks. As a result, while not all citizens are affected, those who (almost) exclusively obtain information through social networks are more vulnerable to the effects of filter bubbles and echo chambers.…”