Caroline Cauffman (C.A.N.M.Y.)

Caroline Cauffman is Associate Professor of Private Law at Maastricht University and Visiting Professor at Hasselt University. Her research lies at the intersection of European private law, consumer law, competition law and digital regulation. Her work combines doctrinal and comparative legal analysis with law-and-economics perspectives and interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars in marketing, socio-legal studies and computer science. 

She obtained her Master’s degree in Law in 1998 and her PhD in Law in 2004 from KU Leuven. She also holds an MA in European Competition Law from King’s College London and obtained the Ius Commune Researcher’s Certificate. Before joining Maastricht University, she held academic positions as a practice assistant and assistant professor at the University of Antwerp. She has combined her academic career with more than a decade of professional experience as an attorney-at-law. 

At Maastricht University, Caroline is a co-director of the Maastricht European Private Law Institute and a member of the Maastricht Law and Tech Lab. Within the Ius Commune School of Research, she leads the research programme on the general law of obligations and contracts. 

Her doctoral supervision encompasses digital platforms, artificial intelligence, consumer contracts, privacy assistants, competition-law enforcement, digital-market regulation and data-driven commercial practices. 

Caroline has taught extensively in European private law, consumer law and competition law in Europe and internationally. She was a member of the Flying Faculty of the China–EU School of Law, a visiting professor at Hamburg University, and taught Competition Law in the Master of Business Law programme at the FHR Institute in Paramaribo.

Her research record comprises more than 170 publications, including articles, books and edited volumes on European contract and consumer law, competition law, private enforcement, online platforms and digital regulation. Her work has been supported by competitive funding from, among others, FWO-Vlaanderen, the European Commission’s Marie Curie programme, the China–EU School of Law and the Dutch NWO/NWA programme. An interdisciplinary project using artificial intelligence to identify product-safety risks in online consumer reviews received a Silver Medal in the Senior Researchers category of the 2023 EU Product Safety Award. 

She is a member of the editorial board of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law and the Tijdschrift voor Consumentenrecht & Handelspraktijken and a member of the advisory board of the Journal of European Consumer and Market Law and the Journal of Law, Market & Innovation.

Alongside her academic work, Caroline has served as an assessor at the Belgian Competition Authority since 2013 and as an expert to the Belgian Special Advisory Commission on Unfair Contract Terms since 2021. She has contributed to EU-commissioned research and enforcement projects and is regularly invited to participate in doctoral committees, research-funding panels and international academic networks.