E-commerce in virtual worlds: Digital Services Act

The Digital Services Act should be applied to metaverse virtual shops when certain conditions are met. This is necessary to provide a regulatory substratum to reinforce consumer confidence in a system that, while symptomatic of innovation, is still nebulous. At the same time, companies interested in the new digital universe must be ready to redefine their strategies not only to encompass the use of innovative solutions in the metaverse, but also to consider relevant new regulatory profiles, thereby ensuring a legally sound development of virtual worlds. In particular, the creation of new virtual worlds populated by people’s avatars may generate issues concerning the processing of the user-avatar personal data collected in the metaverse and the regulation of metaverse contractual relations. In this regard, there are problems of territoriality and internationality inherent in the concept of the metaverse, which introduces the legal challenge of having to identify the law applicable to relationships arising within it. In the world of virtual B2C retailing, this response must inevitably consider the position of the parties involved, to ensure that consumer users enjoy the protections and benefits reserved to them outside of the metaverse. The same rule should be applied as for consumers buying online, wherever they are and whatever brand they are buying from: they can enjoy the protection accorded to them by the legal rules applicable in their country of residence, when they are more favourable to the consumer. In sum, in the new virtual world, avatars should have the same legal protections that apply to consumers in the physical world