Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington
Browse

User review portability: Why and how?

Download (347.23 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-03-01, 19:54 authored by V Kathuria, Jessica LaiJessica Lai
User reviews of products on the e-commerce platforms are a critical determinant of inter-platform competition, as a large number of consumers base their purchasing choices on the related reviews written by other users. The network effects between the number of reviews and new users give a sustainable competitive advantage to incumbent platforms. While business literature has recognised the commercial value of the user reviews, legal scholarship has paid little attention to levelling the playing field between incumbents and new e-commerce platforms by exploring the portability of user reviews. This paper bridges this gap. We explore the possibility of porting user reviews through two legal mechanisms—first, traditional Intellectual Property law; second, the new Right to Data Portability (RtDP) as enshrined in the GDPR. After recognising the limitations of these mechanisms in enabling the portability of reviews, we suggest that pure data aggregators, such as Personal Information Management Services (PIMS), are best placed to make user reviews available to multiple platforms.

History

Preferred citation

Kathuria, V. & Lai, J. C. (2018). User review portability: Why and how? Computer Law and Security Review, 34(6), 1291-1299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2018.05.018

Journal title

Computer Law and Security Review

Volume

34

Issue

6

Publication date

2018-12-01

Pagination

1291-1299

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Publication status

Published

ISSN

0267-3649

Language

en