A Contract Law for the Age of Digital Platforms? An introduction

The essays which make up this book are the results of a joint effort. Its origin can be traced back to the beginning of 2020, when among the anxieties raised by a mysterious new virus, a group of PhD researchers and scholars of the University of Pisa informally coalesced, as it were, around the elusive notion of ‘platform’ and the peculiarly asymmetric nature of the platform-user relationship. Indeed, both sectoral legislation and transversal regulatory regimes somehow assume that these transactions should be regarded as asymmetric contracts. In view of the power of the platform to shape both the terms of the relationship and the infrastructure in which it takes place, however, it seemed open to discussion whether the asymmetry between the parties could adequately be tackled by extant contract law instruments. Exploring the potential and limits of a contract law for the age of digital platforms seemed thus a topical challenge for future scholarship. The idea of a PhD seminar took shape in a few (digital, ça va sans dire) meetings over the bleak and secluded days of the springtime 2020, in the form of a dialogue between PhD researchers and young legal scholar, chosen amongst the brightest in the field.