Ionica Holban (Oncioiu)

English

Research Papers in Economics

AE   Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’ 
 
Amfiteatru Economic  296 
BOOK REVIEW 
 
CONSUMER PROTECTION IN THE ‘INFORMATION ECONOMY’ 
 
 
Ionica Holban (Oncioiu)
 
Tomis University, Constanta, Romania 
 
 
Jane K Winn - Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’ 
 
“Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’ ” is a bold book published in 2006. 
An internationally renowned specialist, Jane K Winn, wrote this book in a manner that 
highlights the conceptual changes with regard to consumer protection that could eventually 
balance the existing asymmetry in relation to practical 
knowledge, despite consumer protection reforms of the 
past. 
This book provides a framework for the relationship 
between the basic objectives of consumer protection 
legislation and technological innovation, in order to meet 
the requirements of a sustainable future. There are 
interesting blends of theoretical analysis with case 
studies, which are meant to underline the importance of 
control over intellectual capital and confidentiality of 
information.  
The author of this book seeks to obtain answers to two 
important questions: what does the access to secret 
information in practical knowledge mean and how can it 
be used to solve real problems concerning consumer 
protection? 
Jane K Winn presents her point of view regarding the reducing of costs for individual 
consumers, including those who consume organic products, within the framework of an 
interactive process that should be based also on respecting the principle of sustainable 
development. The author argues for an alternative to what she calls „private principles of 
consumer protection”,  which should be able to provide better guidance for shaping a world 
in which we can satisfy the needs of the present generation (including those of organic 
products), without threatening the equally valid needs of the future generations. 
The concept of „consumer of online products” is clearly not new: it has been coined long 
time ago, so there is certainly nothing surprizing in asserting it. The book refers especially 
in its theoretical part to using the power of technology in order to provide „mass 
customization” that could eventually exceed the practical knowledge asymmetry that 
                                                 
 Author’s contact: e-mail: NELLY_ONCIOIU@yahoo.com Amfiteatru Economic recommends  AE 
 
Vol. XIV • No. 31 • February 2012  297 
persisted between commercial lenders and consumer borrowers in spite of reforms 
regarding consumer protection performed in the past.  
Quite interesting is the further treatment of the need to improve the payment systems used 
by consumers in the context of a future economical growth without restrictions and 
constraints imposed by business ethics. Jane K. Winn criticizes in this point those who do 
not think that protecting consumer rights is a “necessary evil” dictated by both the 
economic and financial cycle. The author notes that behind the changing of the modern 
consumer’s special status stands a lack of information concerning their interests coupled 
with an unitary management of legislation in this field.  
Jane K. Winn approaches next various aspects of consumer rights in e-commerce. This 
approach reveals the role of electronic technologies for protection of content distribution 
and of visible creative thought content. Moreover, she also discusses and underpins with 
examples in a special section the controversial relationship between innovators and 
consumers in the realm of intellectual property law.  
We are thus invited to recognize the importance of assessing the role of consumer 
protection legislation in the digital economy.  
The concept of consumer who benefits from technological developments is the best one 
presented, which should be acknowledged because, according to the author, the new 
economy recognizes the limited resources, and manages to highlight the rhetorical 
questions about harmonization of legislation on the rights of end consumers, particularly on 
the topic of the organic products. 
A close reading of this book discloses the requirement to reconsider what we understand by 
evidence of malfunctioning of consumer education. Therefore, not all laws that are labelled 
as consumer protection laws are really designed to look after the interests of consumers. 
Jane K. Winn considers that we must find a new way of thinking and of addressing the 
issue of sustainable economic development that meets the real needs of consumers in an 
age which the author described it as the “age of disinformation and widespread consumer 
victimization”.  
The author offers a fresh theoretical and practical formulation by inquiring the general 
content of employed concepts and converting some of the metaphors in scientific concepts 
and genuine economic categories. While surveying the confrontations of current ideas on 
this topic, the author articulates her own theoretical standpoint by extracting and blending 
relevant elements for her own construction, outlining hereby a coherent and original set of 
judgments.  
The book is dense and provides the specialists, but also the general public, with a valuable 
collection of facts and ideas. Although the topic leaves little room for theoretical 
innovation, the author captures the attention by approaching an extensively debated issue in 
the legislative, social or psychological research fields, succeeding hereby to organize her 
discussion around economic benchmarks other than those rooted in marketing, in an own 
pleasant style.  
The author avoids reiterating already trivialized views and identifies less discussed research 
directions in the complex landscape of consumer protection issues. She manages to express 
already known things in an original manner and combine them harmoniously with valuable AE   Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’ 
 
Amfiteatru Economic  298 
and exciting opinions of her own. The book is overall distinguished by the conceptual 
harmony and the chosen topic on which much has been said, but not enough. Therefore, 
Jane K Winn’s aim is to plead for the importance of direct and indirect consumer protection 
as an instrument to ensure its sovereignty on the market economy, and its conceptualization 
as a complex partnership established between the main subjects involved, namely market, 
public power, the producer and not least the consumer himself, is remarkable.  
The introduction of some pillars of support and guidance during the reading should be also 
emphasized: the account is gradually articulated starting from general to particular, from 
conceptual clarification to constructive critical analysis, from the takeover of appropriate 
theoretical input to the outlining of own views on consumer protection during an ongoing 
dialogue with other experts’ standpoints in the scholarship. 
One should note that in this type of economy the consumer’ requirements are directing 
attitudes, beliefs and values. Jane K. Winn’s position is that in the future consumers will 
remain on their own in this respect, because most people have no idea what such a world 
would reveal and what they will need to develop a sustainable future. Therefore, the 
integration of business, ethics and environment will not be an easy one. The author is 
convinced that the real problems of consumer protection can be solved, but this requires a 
revolutionary change in what the respect for the end consumer means. 
The originality of this book construction results further from the arrangement and 
interconnections of its sections: from traditional concepts about consumer behavior, which 
oscillates back and forth between rationality and irrationality, gradually advancing to the 
interpretation of consumer protection issues in the e-economy and its characteristic in the 
broader international context, ending the account with an analysis of the particular features 
of the consumer protection’ process. The author proposes concrete solutions based on the 
insights gained in both the theoretical and practical part of the survey.  
The author attempts to re-establish in the end of the book the concept of consumer from the 
perspective of the legislation regarding its protection and pleads for designing  networks of 
cooperation in this field.    
Jane K. Winn draws also the attention on the debates over a future that recognizes the 
economic and ethical values. Consumerism has been addressed both in the prosperity policy 
and necessary policy, as well as in recent criticism of globalization, which have revived 
criticism of consumer culture of the previous generations.  
About the author 
 
Professor Winn is a principal professor of law at Charles I and 
Co-Director, Law, Technology & Arts Group (formerly Shidler 
Center) at University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, 
Washington. She is an international authority in the field of 
electronic commerce, technological issues and information 
security governance. Her field of research includes electronic 
commerce, the evolution of law in the United States, European 
Union and China. She is coauthor of Law of Electronic 
Commerce and the casebook Electronic Commerce. In 2007 
she taught on cyber security law and electronic commerce law, 
as part of Masters of Law course at the Law Faculty at University of Melbourne. 

Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’

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Consumer Protection in the ‘Information Economy’

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