Kick-off eMarketShield: Security in Online Food Retail with Risk-based AI Control
Friedolin Baumann | 06.03.2025
The sale of dangerous or unauthorised products, misleading advertising or prohibited health are significant risks to consumers in online commerce.
‘Market surveillance in online trade is an important supplement to controls in stationary retail and makes a sustainable contribution to consumer safety,’ says Christoph Rinner, emphasising the starting point for the ‘eMarketShield’ research project led by AGES.
The project aims to strengthen risk-based control and monitoring measures in online food retail and to expand digital market surveillance in the food sector. Innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are used to improve safety and transparency in online retail in the long term.
Innovative approaches for greater security in online commerce
The eMarketShield project consists of an interdisciplinary project consortium comprising the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK) as demand carrier, the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria Campus Hagenberg, the Linz Institute for Qualitative Analysis (LIquA), the Austrian Institute for Applied Telecommunications (ÖIAT), X-Net Services GmbH and Xylem Science and Technology Management GmbH under the leadership of AGES. The aim is to develop innovative control approaches that are specifically tailored to the requirements of market surveillance in online trade. Building on best practices from staionary retail, modern technologies such as web crawling (to capture the structure and content of websites), scraping (to read text) and API access (to connect systems) are used. In addition, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) methods such as large language models (LLM) are used to understand natural language and identify suspicious content.
There is a particular focus on data-driven analysis to identify weaknesses in current internet market surveillance. By developing and evaluating its own control approaches – especially for food supplements – and comparing them with existing solutions, eMarketShield aims to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of market surveillance. The findings should also be transferable to other product categories that are sold online. ‘The underlying IT infrastructure and technical systems are designed in such a way that misuse or manipulation is almost impossible or quickly detectable. Only if the solutions developed deliver reliable results at European level and offer legal certainty, they can be used effectively on the market,’ says Nikolaus Dürk, Managing Director of X-Net, explaining the approach taken in the project.
Interdisciplinary collaboration between strong partners
‘In addition to market surveillance, the results of eMarketShield will also support prevention efforts against internet fraud. This will enable us to warn consumers even more effectively about misleading offers and dangerous foods and food supplements as part of the Internet Watchlist,’ said ÖIAT Managing Director Bernhard Jungwirth about the kick-off event on 19 November 2024. The kick-off event provided an opportunity for exchange not only for the project partners, but also for numerous external stakeholders. Representatives from various authorities, such as the Federal Office for Consumer Health (BAVG), the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG) and the Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying (BEV), supported the project in advance with a letter of intent.
Representatives from the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES), the Product Safety Department of the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK), the Office for Tobacco Coordination, the Vienna Food Safety Authority, the Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications (RTR) and the AGES Food Safety Division showed great interest. The kick-off meeting identified the needs of the various stakeholders. Intensive and constructive discussions were held to discuss key project approaches and strategies, laying the foundation for successful cooperation.
Forward-looking research project for consumer protection
‘The findings of this project serve to identify potential weaknesses in the regulatory market surveillance of online trade and provide solutions to minimise potential risks for consumers in Austria through new risk-based control approaches using data-supported decision-making,’ Carolin Krejci from the Food Safety Department of the Ministry of Health expects improvements in consumer protection in online trade.
eMarketShield aims to improve consumer safety in online commerce. The focus is on dietary supplements, cosmetics and toys. The project is supported by the KIRAS funding programme of the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and actively contributes to Austria's digital sovereignty. By developing innovative control approaches, the project aims to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of market surveillance in the long term, thereby making a significant contribution to security in online commerce. eMarketShield thus also increases consumer protection against digital risks.
For mor information please contact:
AGES - Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und
Ernährungssicherheit GmbH
Phone: +43 (0)50 555-25000
E-Mail: presse@ages.at
Website: https://www.ages.at