Report on the online colloquium of 5.12.2025 "Phenotyping vulnerability in digital law"

On 5 December 2025, the Bonn research centre ForTech and the Dresden research project DESIGNATE organized a one-day online colloquium on the topic of "Phenotyping vulnerability in digital law". A report on the colloquium, authored by research associate Konstantin Hofmann and former research assistant Anna-Lena Borchert has been published in MMR-Aktuell 2026, 01114.

The colloquium focused on the question of how the legal concept of vulnerability can be conceptualized and operationalized in the context of digital legal regimes - such as data protection, platform and AI law. Researchers from academia and practice discussed vulnerability in data protection law, dark patterns in the Digital Services Act, vulnerability in AI law and fairness and market regulation in four thematic blocks. The aim of the event was to systematically shed light on different manifestations of vulnerability and to develop normative protection concepts for the digital legal system.

The conference report can be viewed here.