Law, Digital Nudging and Manipulation: Dark Patterns, Artificial Intelligence and the Right to Good Administration

The use of behavioural insights in the digital area has grown considerably in importance during the COVID-19 pandemic and can be an element of promoting the right to good administration in the public sector.On the other hand, digital nudging has a dark side, both in private and public sector. The possible use by public and private sectors of so-called dark patterns, concerning which the European Parliament has recently proposed to include a ban in the future Digital Services Act, and what is known as hypernudging raises legal questions regarding a possible manipulation that violates freedom of thought, as indicated by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a statement of 2019. This article deals with the definition of those concepts and their possible legal regulation, by means of considering some nternational examples.