Fundamental rights and the metaverse: Avatar–player relationships

This contribution analyses the legal problems related to the protection of fundamental rights in the metaverse, from the viewpoint of private law. After an introduction on the peculiarities of the fundamental rights narrative in the context of virtual reality, and the possible attitudes of the legal order towards it, the contribution will focus on the topic of the personality rights of metaverse players and their avatars. The question to be addressed is the legal qualification of the relationship between the player and the avatar: whether avatars can be considered real persons that are independent of the players; whether they are the players’ property, or a projection of their personality. Once these questions have been answered, the final section of the chapter will attempt to apply the results to concrete cases in order to identify reliable criteria for establishing when wrongs to avatars should give rise to real remedies and when they should only entitle them to virtual remedies.