This chapter focuses on the second bridge between economic and social values in contract law, examining the role played by regulation in bringing together these values. The discussion questions the effectiveness of regulatory responses to business to consumer (B2C) relations in English consumer contract law, in protecting people not just as economic actors, but also as citizens, and in safeguarding values such as autonomy and human dignity. The analysis focuses on the regulation of unfair contract terms, unfair commercial practices, implied terms in contracts for the provision of goods, services and digital content, and on information and cancellation rights in business to consumer (B2C) contracts. This chapter also examines the concept of consumer vulnerability in trader– consumer relations.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) allow collecting and processing massive amounts of data obtained from people’s online records. Data is of particular importance regarding consumers and their activity in online markets because it allows access to (many) consumers’ personal and family characteristics, as well as prior consumption history. This, in turn, grants the ability to derive design proxies about preferences, interests, and personal valuations of goods and services. Naturally, this has significant economic impact.

Given the enormous size of the population of consumers, the use of big data, through AI, makes the approximation to individual consumer’s preferences, needs, concerns, and interests very accurate.

The advent of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) as a law having uniform application throughout Australia will have a significant impact upon some areas of contract law. Most notably, the ACL will impact upon statutory unconscionability, implied terms in the form of consumer guarantees, misleading or deceptive conduct (the statutory corollary to the common law doctrine of misrepresentation) and unfair contract terms. The last topic is the focus of this chapter: the unfair contract terms regime of the ACL, as provided for in ss 23–28, sets up a mechanism for determining whether terms in standard form consumer or small business contracts are unfair.

This chapter explores the themes of procedural and substantive fairness in regulating consumer contracts in ASEAN member states. Most member states have regimes that address conduct by traders that impinges upon consumers’ ability to make free and informed decision about the contracts they enter, with prohibitions on misrepresentation and undue pressure. The treatment of unfair contract terms is less even across the region. Equally, in many circumstances the law that exists ‘on the books’ is not backed up by regulatory oversight. Consumers often lack the recourses to pursue claims of unfair conduct or terms and so an active and responsive regulator is essential to the vitality and effectiveness of the consumer protection regime. Nonetheless, it does not seem overly optimistic to suggest a growing awareness of the relevance of consumer protection in a thriving market economy, including prohibitions on substantive unfairness, or the possibility of a more unified approach consistent with the ASEAN way.