A numerus clausus rationale for the privity of contract: the protective function

Giorgia Bucaria () and Giulio Gottardo ()
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Giorgia Bucaria: Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies - University of Pisa
Giulio Gottardo: University of Oxford

European Journal of Law and Economics, 2023, vol. 55, issue 1, No 2, 29-59

Abstract: Abstract We analyse the legal and economic background and implications of the destandardisation of digital contracts, with a focus on consumer protection and overall efficiency. We argue that firms can exploit destandardisation paired with asymmetric information to extract rents. We propose the introduction of a numerus clausus principle in the digital licensing realm (a limit to the contractual freedom of parties to create proprietary rights) as a way of reducing rent extraction by firms and increasing consumer surplus. With a simple economic model, we account for the tradeoff between the benefit from reduced market power and the social cost of legally enforced standardisation, and show that some degree of enforced standardisation can be optimal.

Keywords: Numerus clausus; Standardisation; Digital objects; Digital licenses; Privity of contract; Consumer protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K11 K12 K24 L15 L24 L51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10657-022-09745-6

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