The Place of Contract for Digital Thing in Latvian Contract Law Within the Context of the Consumer Sale Directives 2019

Abstract

The article aims to explore the place of contract for digital thing (i.e., a good with digital elements; digital content; and digital service) from the point of view of Latvian contract law considering the recently adopted Consumer Sale Directives 2019 (Directives 2019/770 and 2019/771). The topicality of the article’s theme is rooted in transposition of these directives into Latvian national law. On the one hand, it is necessary to find a proper place for classification of contract for a digital good considering approaches and contents of Latvian contract law for the appropriate understanding of this contract within Latvian contract law and, speaking broadly, Latvian civil law. On the other, the transposition of these directives would mean that digital goods for nonconsumers will remain without explicit regulation because these directives are intended to be transposed into consumer rights protection law being as lex specialis without introducing any amendments into general contract law. At the beginning, the present article provides an overview of the place of contract for a digital thing before transposition of the Consumer Sale Directives 2019 into Latvian consumer rights protection law, i.e., in the current regulation of Latvian contract law. The article continues with analysis of the expected place of contract for a digital thing after the currently intended transposition of these directives. Afterwards the article addresses the consequences of that transposition. The article concludes with summary following the discussion contained therein.