Christine Riefa

Email:
c.j.a.riefa@reading.ac.uk

Responsibilities:Professor of Law

Teaching

Commercial Law, EU Law, Law and technology, Projects, Dissertation, PhDs

Background

Prof. Christine Riefa is a consumer law specialist with international expertise. She has advised governments on reform of consumer laws in different hemispheres. She is widely published with work cited in official documents from international institutions (incl. The World Economic Forum, UNCTAD, the European Parliament, the OECD) and academic scholarship. She is a regular keynote speaker at national and international conferences. She is a Board Member of the International Association of Consumer Law. She is a founding editor of the Journal of European Consumer and Market Law (EuCML, published by Beck and available on Kluwer). She co-leads the EnfTech project investigating a technological approach to consumer enforcement and policy making. In recent years, he has focussed her attention on improving consumer law enforcement at national and international level and co-authored a number of reports:

- The transformative potential of Enforcement Technology (EnfTech) in consumer law (2024)

- Cross-border enforcement of consumer law: looking to the future (2023) available on the UNCTAD website.

Professional bodies/affiliations

She currently is the Coordinator of the United Nations Working Group on Consumer Protection in E-Commerce (as part of the UNCTAD Inter-Governmental Group of Experts).
She is an advisory panel member to the class representative in Elizabeth Helen Coll v Alphabet Inc. and Others in front of the Competition Appeal Tribunal
She was member of the Consultative Group of Experts of the Committee for the development of an International Code for the Protection of Tourists at the World Tourism Organisation (A specialised agency of the United Nations).
She was the expert to the Rapporteur on the General Product Safety Regulation at the European Economic and Social Committee.

Selected publications

Vulnerable Consumers in the Digital Single Market (forthcoming, European Business Law Review 2022)
Coronavirus as a Catalyst to Transform Consumer Policy and Enforcement (Journal of Consumer Policy 2021)
Vulnerable Consumers and the Law (co-edited with Séverine Saintier) (Routledge 2021)
Consumer Theories of Harm, an economic approach to consumer law enforcement and policy making (co-authored with Paolo Siciliani and Harriet Gamper) (Hart 2019)
Consumer Protection and Online Auction Platforms (Routledge 2016)

Selected keynotes

Forthcoming Keynote: Use of technology in consumer enforcement: Results from the EnfTech project (title TBC), Chartered Trading Standards Institute Annual Conference 2024, Facing the future (Leeds, 18 June 2024)
Forthcoming Keynote: The transformative power of enforcement technology in consumer law, Teaching Consumer Law in a changing environment conference (Santa Fe, New Mexico USA 17, 18 May 2024)
Keynote, Fairness by Design: The introduction of a positive duty to trade fairly in consumer law, Safe Internet Day Conference organised by the German Federal Ministry on Consumer Affairs and Bitkom (6th February 2024, Berlin).
Keynote: A technological approach to consumer enforcement and policy, UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group of Experts (Geneva, 18th July 2022)
Keynote: Protecting consumers’ data in the digital world: advocating fairness by design, Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, Our Data is being collected, stored and analysed, but to whose benefit? Does competition and consumer protection work? (16 November 2021, FCCA Day, Online)

Recent conference papers

C Riefa, The EnfTech results are in: Mixed review for AI? UNCTAD Webinar on AI and consumer protection (29th February 2024)
C. Riefa, EnfTech: The transformative potential of technology in consumer law enforcement, First Arab Consumer Protection Forum, organised by UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, The UNCTAD Competition and Consumer Policies Branch and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Bahrain (21 February 2024, Manama).
C. Riefa, What is AI and what are the risks for consumers? UNCTAD Webinar on AI and consumer protection (1st February 2024)
C Riefa, AI and consumer protection: rolling out EnfTech to scale consumer protection up, United Nations IGF 2023, panel: AI Policy & Technology – a source of empowerment in consumer protection (10 October 2023, Japan)
C Riefa, E Coll, EnfTech: the transformative potential of technology in consumer law enforcement, UNCTAD Research Partnership Platform, 14th meeting (05 July 2023 Palais des Nations, Geneva)
C Riefa, What are the promises and dangers of AI when used in consumer enforcement? UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group of Expert on Consumer Protection Law and Policy, 7th session, side event organised by Brasillicon (04 July 2023 Palais des Nations, Geneva)
C Riefa, Sanctions in UK Consumer Law, Deputy Superintedence for Consumer Protection (SIC Colombia), International Congress on Sanctioning Dosimetry in Consumer Protection (27-28 June, Online)
C Riefa, Consumer law enforcement on social media platforms, Congreso Internacional de Derecho Commercial - Mercados Digitales (08 June 2023, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Online)
C Riefa, Introducing EnfTech: a technological approach to consumer law enforcement, BEUC, Consumer Pro, Best Practice Seminar (22 May 2023, Online)
C Riefa, Consumer Theories of Harm, An economic approach to consumer law enforcement and policy making, ICPEN Webinar, Assessing the impact of business practices and enforcement interventions (6 March 2023, Online)