Meers, Jed orcid.org/0000-0001-7993-3062 (2024) Discrimination at the interface:The Equality Act 2010 and platform interface design. The Modern Law Review. ISSN 0026-7961
Abstract
Given their dominance in a range of sectors – from private renting to job search – the design of online platforms can impede access to markets and facilitate discrimination. Most legal scholarship on the equality implications of platform design focuses on algorithms. This paper instead interrogates the comparatively neglected issue of interface design. It argues that two areas of interface design – “structuring” and “sorting” functions – fall inside the scope of the Equality Act 2010 as a “provision, criteria or practice” that does not enjoy a safe harbour. Drawing on web-scraping methods, it then provides an applied example of these arguments using “No DSS” discrimination on a leading rental platform in the UK. Using a sample of 3,336 listings collected years apart, the paper demonstrates how design choices in “structuring” and “sorting” interfaces can either facilitate or minimise discrimination on online platforms.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > The York Law School |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 02 Aug 2023 07:30 |
Last Modified: | 14 Mar 2025 00:10 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12855 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/1468-2230.12855 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201969 |
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Description: Modern Law Review - 2023 - Meers - Discrimination at the Interface The Equality Act 2010 and Platform Interface Design
Licence: CC-BY-NC 2.5