O direito digital aplicado ao consumo sustentável: internet das coisas e sustentabilidade

Abstract

Interdisciplinary study in the area of Applied Social Sciences, which establishes a relationship between Digital Law, Consumer Law and Environmental Law developed as a PhD Thesis. This paper brings qualitative research on the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industry 4.0 model and what are their contributions and setbacks in the ecommerce scenario and its effects on the environment - especially unsustainable consumption. Such reflexes are perceived by the incidence of technodependence associated with unsustainable levels of marketing, given the existing legislative gaps, which prove to be insufficient to regulate IoT in the promotion of sustainable consumption. The so-called consumer society, that is, the one based on social behavior focused on consumption, represents a scenario of risk of exhaustion of the planet's natural resources and of accumulation of an immeasurable volume of waste disposal, especially the product of technological disposal: e-waste. The concern with the environment, given this situation, is an emergency to avoid environmental degradation. One cannot forget the social and economic impacts caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, since, with the closure of the retailers' physical stores, consumers had no choice but to change their consumption behavior to the online environment. Rethinking consumption and its role in sustainability is a fundamental premise for confronting environmental problems. It is in this cutout of the consumer and risk society that the study aims to reflect on: the role of Consumer Law in the face of technological innovations and its contribution to the implementation of a sustainable consumption model. Thus, the central objective of the research is to verify the potentialities of Digital Law and IoT in the construction of consumption patterns, in the light of sustainability, as well as to analyze the current state of IoT technology and, in doing so, to analyze the current legislations, verifying their pertinence and sufficiency in their regulation. Finally, the study presents the final considerations, based on a hypothetical-deductive methodology, which involves bibliographic review, analysis of technical reports, database research, analysis of statistical indicators and review of historical facts, from an interdisciplinary approach. Consumer behavior has changed. In this reality, there is a need for legislation that meets the sustainability of consumption generated by new technologies.