The head of Ontier's Fashion and Luxury area, María Jesús Dehesa, has written a timely and precise article in the specialized publication Luxonomy about the “rules of the game” in that space as named as it is unknown, the so-called metaverse, which despite , if perhaps newborn, is already the object of market interest and action.
María Jesús Dehesa says that 'if regulating the coexistence of human beings, ordering their activity and protecting their rights has been, and continues to be, a challenge in the real world that we know, let us imagine the difficulties that can arise when physical reality and reality coexist. virtual reality. Today the metaverse is not conceived as a substitute for reality – will that time come? −, but rather as a parallel universe in which all the activities that we carry out in the real world can be carried out: studying, working, having fun, playing, buying, selling, maintaining social relationships, etc. The metaverse is called to be everything that our imagination is capable of creating and technology allows. The metaverse should not become what many call 'a lawless city'.
The great unknown - indicates María Jesús Dehesa - is whether this legal framework already exists, if it exists, it is sufficient or if, on the contrary, it must be created. And in that case, whether we should aspire to global regulation or opt for self-regulation.
Today, each entity that creates a virtual environment does so with its own access rules, content, currency, rights and obligations, conflict resolution systems, etc., so that the technical specifications, legal requirements, content , the limits of liability, are different in each case. It is enough to read the 'Terms of Use' of each platform to realize this.
The answer to this question is not simple or univocal, for the author, since, to a large extent, the legal systems that we know are based on territoriality, and the metaverse has no borders or territories.
In addition to the above, a greater number of regulators are increasingly converging on each activity, on each sector of the economy. This is the case, among others, of the fashion and luxury industry.
For María Jesús Dehesa, companies in this sector have to adapt their activity to the rules of the game of the business world in general and the particular ones that emanate from consumer rights, the organization of digital services, competition regulations. unfair, advertising, industrial property rights, image rights, intellectual property rights, regulations on data protection, regulation of foreign investment, taxation of operations, trade regulation, anti-money laundering regulations, etc. . And now, with the emergence of cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, non-fungible tokens and blockchain technology, without whose existence the metaverse would probably not exist, we must add the new regulations approved on the matter to the regulatory landscape.
Another of the great protagonists of the metaverse is the avatar. Does our avatar have rights? Do you have obligations? In his 'journey' through the environments of the metaverse, should our avatar be subject to any rules of conduct beyond those established by the platform itself? What if the platform does not have rules for certain situations? Or if such rules are not enough to preserve our avatar? And what responsibilities would arise, for whom and in front of whom?
The full article in Luxonomy can be downloaded here
