Toni Sanchez, an expert in Digital Law and lecturer of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Law, together with Cai Felip, executive director of Link Realities and expert in metaverse, led the conference on 8 November on “Legal Aspects of the Metaverse. Legal Key Points for Your Company,” in which they revealed the most relevant aspects of this new digital environment and the legal issues facing the industry.

“The metaverse, that shared virtual world that can be accessed from any platform through the Internet, poses new situations and problems that the current legal framework can solve, but with limitations, since there are many other situations that are not yet resolved. Legislation will have to provide answers, but as lawyers, we will also have to provide legal protection and legal certainty to the companies and users who live together in the metaverse,” explained Toni Sanchez after reviewing the main legal challenges that this new digital environment proposes.

Cai Felip also shared his knowledge on the metaverse, as it remains a universe “unknown to many” that is currently very young. “We still cannot ask how far the metaverse will go, as we are in a very early stage. All these new universes have a time of birth in which there is a lot of interest at first and then it stabilises, but in the medium-long term, the metaverse will be part of almost everything in our day to day, with how we study, how we work, how we live…” Felip said reflecting on the current situation of the metaverse, which, according to the expert, is not a passing fad.

Despite the various issues addressed at the webinar, such as infringement on the right to privacy, protection of third parties or impersonation, Sánchez gave hope by assuring that Europe enjoys one of the best and most comprehensive regulations: “We are under what is known as the Brussels Effect, making the EU a leader in digital regulation outside it borders. European regulation in the digital environment, especially in terms of privacy, is the leader,” the lawyer reassured. “The European legislator is a good regulator and has already regulated blockchain, and has done it quite well.  It may seem late and may over regulate at times, but it regulates well,” concluded UIC Barcelona expert and lecturer.

The session was moderated by the dean of the Faculty of Law, Pilar Fernández Bozal, who stressed the importance of UIC Barcelona providing these sessions to shed light on the latest technological developments, “The University and the Faculty of Law are especially aware of society’s path toward new virtual worlds, such as the metaverse or blockchain , which almost always implies legal development to analyse the difficulties that we can find in this transition,” the dean commented after ensuring that UIC Barcelona will continue to hold these webinars conferences on technology and legality.