Interactive EUROPEAN UNION - DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET
EC readies plan for digital single market initiative
The European Commission is in the process of implementing a wide-ranging strategy to create a genuine ‘Digital Single Market’ across the EU
Becket McGrath, Partner, Cooley’s Antitrust & Competition
Becket McGrath is a partner in the Antitrust & Competition practice and a member of the Cooley Business Department in the firm's London office. Becket advises clients on all aspects of EU and UK competition law, with an emphasis on defending companies against agency investigations, behaviour counselling, compliance, competition litigation and merger control.
Certain interest groups and some national governments have viewed the ‘DSM agenda’ as an opportunity to increase the regulatory burden placed on new and innovative business models that are threatening incumbents’ existing business models. P68 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM
Te European Commission is in the process of implementing a wide-ranging strategy to create a genuine ‘Digital Single Market’ across the EU. Essentially, the Commission’s objective is to enable businesses and consumers across the EU to take advantage of the wide range of available services that are facilitated by new digital technologies, regardless of national borders. More controversially, certain interest groups and some national governments have viewed the ‘DSM agenda’ as an opportunity to increase the regulatory burden placed on new and innovative business models that are threatening incumbents’ existing business models. So far, the Commission appears to be attempting to strike a balance between these two, largely opposing, objectives, rather than coming down firmly on one side or the other.
Tis uneasy balance is demonstrated by the Commission’s announcement of a number of measures on 25 May. Specifically, the Commission is proposing to:
a) boost e-commerce by proposing new legislation to prohibit unjustified geoblocking and other forms of discrimination between customers, make cross-border parcel delivery cheaper and more efficient and improve consumer protection enforcement for online commerce;
b) update the rules that govern audiovisual media in a manner that more closely aligns the regulatory framework for broadcast and online services; and
c) study the role of online platforms, with a view to addressing areas of concern through greater self-regulation.
BOOSTING E-COMMERCE Te Commission’s first legislative proposal under
this heading is a regulation to ban ‘unjustified geoblocking’, ie the practice by which website operators block or limit access to a site, or redirect customers to another site, based on their location. Te wording of the proposed regulation is relatively straightforward, in that it simply states at Article 3(1) that “Traders shall not … block or limit customers’ access to their online interface for reasons related to the nationality, place of residence or place of establishment of the customer”. A similar prohibition applies to redirecting customers to a different “version of their online interface” without explicit prior consent (Article 3(2)). Te only exception that appears to be anticipated by the regulation is situations where geo-blocking takes places “to ensure compliance with a legal requirement in Union law or in the laws of Member States”. Tis is presumably to allow for the fact that such practices are often required to protect copyright in digital content.
Te proposed regulation also contains a prohibition on apply different conditions of access to goods and services based on nationality, place of residence or place of establishment and a prohibition on discriminating on the basis of payment method used. Although the relevant articles do carve out situations where the service concerned involves the provision of content protected by copyright and the provision of services in the trader’s premises, the proposal with respect to the supply of goods is rather strange. Mindful of the practical implications of imposing an obligation on all EU businesses to sell their goods across the EU, irrespective of their size and inclination to do so, the proposed regulation simply requires
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