Contract Law and Computational Manipulation

Addressing an underexplored issue in contract law, this explores the legal implications of ‘computational manipulation’, a form of AI-led influence that bypasses rational deliberation and targets decision-making processes.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on law, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and computer science, the book addresses the impact of persuasion, deception and manipulation used by an AI on the validity of a contract. Although prohibited under Article 5 of the newly adopted EU AI Act, the impact of computational manipulation (also known as second generation dark pattern) on contract law remains an under-researched legal grey area at the EU Member States' level, and even more in jurisdictions such as England and Wales, where the Act does not apply. Filling that gap, this book presents a critical and comparative analysis of the interaction between law and technology, and between law and society, from a contract law perspective. Using the English and Italian legal systems as case studies, the book argues that current contract law doctrines and consumer-oriented legislation in both Civil and Common Law traditions fail to adequately address this emerging threat to autonomy.

This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of contract law, private law, and consumer law.