ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the role that economic theory plays on the way consumer vulnerability has traditionally been understood. It focuses on the detriment suffered by consumers in the high-cost short-term credit market and the way payday loans have been recently regulated. The book highlights a similar conundrum for the regulator and reviews the use of a cap on standard variable tariff prices in the energy market. It discusses the state of alternative dispute resolution and online dispute resolution in Portugal where courts have failed to provide consumers with effective relief. The book investigates the way new technologies could come to solve the access to justice problem for the vulnerable. It also focuses on some new technologies allowing claims management companies to increase efficiency in handling claims lodged online and investigates how this new ‘legal tech’ industry can assist the vulnerable.
