Reconstructing Consumer Protection Law for Digital Transactions in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia's rapidly expanding digital economy has transformed consumer transactions from bilateral exchanges into complex relationships involving merchants, marketplaces, payment providers, logistics companies, data controllers, and algorithmic systems. This article examines why Indonesia's consumer protection framework must be reconstructed to address risks arising from misleading information, platform-mediated fraud, personal data misuse, artificial intelligence, ineffective redress, and cross-border commerce. Using normative legal research, it applies statutory, conceptual, comparative, and future-oriented approaches to Law Number 8 of 1999 on Consumer Protection, electronic transactions regulation, personal data protection law, electronic commerce rules, and selected international standards. The analysis finds that fragmented sectoral regulation leaves uncertainty regarding platform status, preventive duties, proportional liability, digital evidence, refunds, and online dispute resolution. The article proposes an Integrated Digital Consumer Protection Model founded on adaptive regulation, risk-and-function-based platform accountability, data governance, technology-enabled supervision, online dispute resolution, consumer literacy, and cross-border cooperation. Platforms should not bear absolute liability for every merchant violation, but their obligations must correspond to their control, knowledge, economic benefit, and capacity to prevent harm. This reconstruction advances justice through effective remedies, legal certainty through clearer allocation of duties, and utility through accessible enforcement, thereby strengthening consumer confidence without unnecessarily restricting responsible digital innovation in Indonesia.