Dr. Patrik Schmidt's doctorate on ratings and rating systems on the Internet successfully completed

We are pleased to announce that the doctoral procedure of our former assistant, Dr. Patrik Schmidt LL.M., was completed in March with a successful disputation. Dr. Schmidt completed his doctorate as part of the vunk "Infoteilhabe" project funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection.

In his dissertation, Schmidt examines the sometimes very confusing legal relationships between operators of review portals, reviewed companies, influencers, review sellers, fake reviewers and the addressed customers and presents the complex legal framework conditions that they must observe. It becomes clear that there are considerable legal gaps. In addition to the suggestions to legislators directly prompted by the dissertation, vunk's interdisciplinary study produced a series of further suggestions on how customer reviews can become a tool for information sharing - away from misrepresentations and unrepresentative reviews. Further information can be found at: https://www.hs-pforzheim.de/vunk/infoteilhabe.