Sector inquiry smart TVs: Bundeskartellamt publishes conclusion and recommendations for action

Besides offering convenient benefits for users, smart TV devices can also be used to collect large amounts of data on consumers and their usage behavior. The sector inquiry revealed that smart TV providers’ behaviour violates a number of German consumer law provisions, namely rules on data protection, unfair competition and civil law. In addition, it detected gaps in current consumer protection legislation.

The sector inquiry on smart TVs provides more than investigation results and a corresponding legal assessment. It gives important advice on how the situation regarding this sector of the economy and IoT devices in general, which is unsatisfactory from a consumer rights perspective, can be dealt with in the future.

Sector inquiry into smart TVs - Conclusion and Recommendations for action