Position papers
Available in
English
The EU digital rulebook has been designed to protect consumers’ data and privacy in the new digital economy. At the core of it, there is a careful balance of interests which the EU’s Digital Omnibus now risks overturning. This balance should be protected and even strengthened to protect consumers’ fundamental rights and freedoms. The proposed reform of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes beyond simplification and will expose consumers to unnecessary risks and compromise essential protections, including the right to effective judicial remedy, and erode trust in digital products and services.
Position papers
Available in
English
In the following contribution, we highlight the most important changes for consumers regarding the AI Act and share BEUC’s recommendations to ensure that both a high level of protection for consumers and a regulatory level playing field for EU businesses remains in place.
Position papers
Available in
English
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) introduces a right to explanation for decisions primarily based on high-risk AI systems. BEUC views this right as essential for accountability, enforcement, and redress under the AI Act.
BEUC has long warned that obscurity in AI and algorithmic systems undermines consumer autonomy and fosters unfair practices and discrimination, especially when consumers cannot understand the logic behind scoring, profiling, or risk assessments by AI systems. The right to an explanation helps rebalance this information and power asymmetry. It obliges companies to disclose meaningful information about logic and factors behind the decision.
This is the minimum requirement to allow consumers to detect mistakes, identify unfair practices and seek redress. To ensure the effectiveness of the right to explanation under the AI Act, BEUC recommends the EU to draft clear guidelines with the following in mind:
Clear guidance on the AI Act’s interpretation and the interplay with other EU legal frameworks
Connecting the right to an explanation and the right to complaint
Encourage proactive provision of explanations
Promote a clear two-step enforcement pathway process
BEUC has long warned that obscurity in AI and algorithmic systems undermines consumer autonomy and fosters unfair practices and discrimination, especially when consumers cannot understand the logic behind scoring, profiling, or risk assessments by AI systems. The right to an explanation helps rebalance this information and power asymmetry. It obliges companies to disclose meaningful information about logic and factors behind the decision.
This is the minimum requirement to allow consumers to detect mistakes, identify unfair practices and seek redress. To ensure the effectiveness of the right to explanation under the AI Act, BEUC recommends the EU to draft clear guidelines with the following in mind:
Clear guidance on the AI Act’s interpretation and the interplay with other EU legal frameworks
Connecting the right to an explanation and the right to complaint
Encourage proactive provision of explanations
Promote a clear two-step enforcement pathway process
