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eCommerce Directive

In 2006, the European Commission has commissioned a study on the liability regime of Internet service providers to a consortium leaded by a Belgium law firm, which is to be submitted by the end of the summer 2007 to the Commission. The purpose is for the Commission to assess whether it is necessary to revise the eCommerce Directive in the coming years. This law firm sent a questionnaire to some rights holders to receive their input and FEP has submitted an answer both to the law firm and to the Commission. Our main message is that the exemption of liability regime for intermediary service providers engaged in certain activities (mere conduit, caching and hosting) should not be further extended to other activities. Electronic commerce represents a major opportunity for the creative industries and many publishers are already online and are significantly investing in new technologies. It is essential for Europe to strengthen the competitiveness of the European publishing industries in the digital era by providing the necessary protection to secure investment. We believe, the eCommerce Directive provides for the proper legal framework and there is no need to introduce any changes at this stage.
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Latest developments: FEP with CMBA (Creative media and Business Alliance) submitted a common paper to the Commission in April 2007.

Link to EC website http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/e-commerce/index_en.htm

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