REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(1)	‘business user’ means any private individual acting in a commercial or professional capacity who, or any legal person which, through online_intermediation_services offers goods or services to consumers for purposes relating to its trade, business, craft or profession;

(2)

‘online intermediation services’ means services which meet all of the following requirements:

(a)	they constitute information society services within the meaning of point (b) of Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12);

(b)	they allow business_users to offer goods or services to consumers, with a view to facilitating the initiating of direct transactions between those business_users and consumers, irrespective of where those transactions are ultimately concluded;

(c)	they are provided to business_users on the basis of contractual relationships between the provider of those services and business_users which offer goods or services to consumers;

(3)	‘provider of online_intermediation_services’ means any natural or legal person which provides, or which offers to provide, online_intermediation_services to business_users;

(4)	‘consumer’ means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside this person’s trade, business, craft or profession;

(5)

‘online search engine’ means a digital service that allows users to input queries in order to perform searches of, in principle, all websites, or all websites in a particular language, on the basis of a query on any subject in the form of a keyword, voice request, phrase or other input, and returns results in any format in which information related to the requested content can be found;

(6)	‘provider of online_search_engine’ means any natural or legal person which provides, or which offers to provide, online_search_engines to consumers;

(7)

‘corporate website user’ means any natural or legal person which uses an online interface, meaning any software, including a website or a part thereof and applications, including mobile applications, to offer goods or services to consumers for purposes relating to its trade, business, craft or profession;

(8)

‘ranking’ means the relative prominence given to the goods or services offered through online_intermediation_services, or the relevance given to search results by online_search_engines, as presented, organised or communicated by the providers of online_intermediation_services or by providers of online_search_engines, respectively, irrespective of the technological means used for such presentation, organisation or communication;

(9)	‘control’ means ownership of, or the ability to exercise decisive influence over, an undertaking, within the meaning of Article 3(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (13);

(10)

‘terms and conditions’ means all terms_and_conditions or specifications, irrespective of their name or form, which govern the contractual relationship between the provider of online_intermediation_services and its business_users and are unilaterally determined by the provider of online_intermediation_services, that unilateral determination being evaluated on the basis of an overall assessment, for which the relative size of the parties concerned, the fact that a negotiation took place, or that certain provisions thereof might have been subject to such a negotiation and determined together by the relevant provider and business_user is not, in itself, decisive;

(11)

‘ancillary goods and services’ means goods and services offered to the consumer prior to the completion of a transaction initiated on the online_intermediation_services in addition to and complementary to the primary good or service offered by the business_user through the online_intermediation_services;

(12)	‘mediation’ means any structured process as defined in point (a) of Article 3 of Directive 2008/52/EC;

(13)	‘durable medium’ means any instrument which enables business_users to store information addressed personally to them in a way accessible for future reference and for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information and allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored.

Article 9

Access to data

1. Providers of online_intermediation_services shall include in their terms_and_conditions a description of the technical and contractual access, or absence thereof, of business_users to any personal data or other data, or both, which business_users or consumers provide for the use of the online_intermediation_services concerned or which are generated through the provision of those services.

2. Through the description referred to in paragraph 1, providers of online_intermediation_services shall adequately inform business_users in particular of the following:

(a)

whether the provider of online_intermediation_services has access to personal data or other data, or both, which business_users or consumers provide for the use of those services or which are generated through the provision of those services, and if so, to which categories of such data and under what conditions;

(b)

whether a business_user has access to personal data or other data, or both, provided by that business_user in connection to the business_user’s use of the online_intermediation_services concerned or generated through the provision of those services to that business_user and the consumers of the business_user’s goods or services, and if so, to which categories of such data and under what conditions;

(c)

in addition to point (b), whether a business_user has access to personal data or other data, or both, including in aggregated form, provided by or generated through the provision of the online_intermediation_services to all of the business_users and consumers thereof, and if so, to which categories of such data and under what conditions; and

(d)

whether any data under point (a) is provided to third parties, along with, where the provision of such data to third parties is not necessary for the proper functioning of the online_intermediation_services, information specifying the purpose of such data sharing, as well as possibilities for business_users to opt out from that data sharing.

3. This Article shall be without prejudice to the application of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Directive (EU) 2016/680 and Directive 2002/58/EC.

Article 10

Restrictions to offer different conditions through other means

1. Where, in the provision of their services, providers of online_intermediation_services restrict the ability of business_users to offer the same goods and services to consumers under different conditions through other means than through those services, they shall include the grounds for that restriction in their terms_and_conditions and make those grounds easily available to the public. Those grounds shall include the main economic, commercial or legal considerations for those restrictions.

2. The obligation set out in paragraph 1 shall not affect any prohibitions or limitations in respect of the imposition of such restrictions that result from the application of other acts of Union law or the law of Member States that is in accordance with Union law and to which the providers of online_intermediation_services are subject.

Article 17

Codes of conduct

1. The Commission shall encourage the drawing up of codes of conduct by providers of online_intermediation_services and by organisations and associations representing them, together with business_users, including SMEs and their representative organisations, that are intended to contribute to the proper application of this Regulation, taking account of the specific features of the various sectors in which online_intermediation_services are provided, as well as of the specific characteristics of SMEs.

2. The Commission shall encourage providers of online_search_engines and organisations and associations representing them to draw up codes of conduct that are specifically intended to contribute to the proper application of Article 5.

3. The Commission shall encourage the providers of online_intermediation_services to adopt and implement sector-specific codes of conduct, where such sector-specific codes of conduct exist and are widely used.

Article 19

Entry into force and application

1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

2. It shall apply from 12 July 2020.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 20 June 2019.

For the European Parliament

The President

A. TAJANI

For the Council

The President

G. CIAMBA

(1) OJ C 440, 6.12.2018, p. 177.

(2) Position of the European Parliament of 17 April 2019 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Decision of the Council of 14 June 2019.

(3) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (OJ L 351, 20.12.2012, p. 1).

(4) Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) (OJ L 177, 4.7.2008, p. 6).

(5) Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure (OJ L 157, 15.6.2016, p. 1).

(6) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).

(7) Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 89).

(8) Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) (OJ L 201, 31.7.2002, p. 37).

(9) Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36).

(10) Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters (OJ L 136, 24.5.2008, p. 3).

(11) Council Decision 2010/48/EC of 26 November 2009 concerning the conclusion, by the European Community, of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (OJ L 23, 27.1.2010, p. 37).

(12) Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and of rules on Information Society services (OJ L 241, 17.9.2015, p. 1).

(13) Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (the EC Merger Regulation) (OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1).

whereas

(11) Examples of online_intermediation_services covered by this Regulation should consequently include online e-commerce market places, including collaborative ones on which business_users are active, online software applications services, such as application stores, and online social media services, irrespective of the technology used to provide such services.
In this sense, online_intermediation_services could also be provided by means of voice assistant technology.
It should also not be relevant whether those transactions between business_users and consumers involve any monetary payment or whether they are concluded in part offline.
However, this Regulation should not apply to peer-to-peer online_intermediation_services without the presence of business_users, pure business-to-business online_intermediation_services which are not offered to consumers, online advertising tools and online advertising exchanges which are not provided with the aim of facilitating the initiation of direct transactions and which do not involve a contractual relationship with consumers.
For the same reason, search engine optimisation software services as well as services which revolve around advertising-blocking software should not be covered by this Regulation.
Technological functionalities and interfaces that merely connect hardware and applications should not be covered by this Regulation, as they normally do not fulfil the requirements for online_intermediation_services.
However, such functionalities or interfaces can be directly connected or ancillary to certain online_intermediation_services and where this is the case, the relevant providers of online_intermediation_services should be subject to transparency requirements related to differentiated treatment based on these functionalities and interfaces.
This Regulation should also not apply to online payment services, since they do not themselves meet the applicable requirements but are rather inherently auxiliary to the transaction for the supply of goods and services to the consumers concerned.

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(19) In general, submitting new goods or services, including software applications, to the online_intermediation_services should be considered to be clear affirmative action, resulting in the waiving, by the business_user, of the notice period required for changes to the terms_and_conditions.
However, in cases where the reasonable and proportionate notice period is longer than 15 days because the changes to the terms_and_conditions require the business_user to make significant technical adjustments to its goods or services, the notice period should not be considered to be automatically waived where the business_user submits new goods and services.
The provider of online_intermediation_services should expect the changes to terms_and_conditions to require the business_user to make significant technical adjustments where, for example, entire features of the online_intermediation_services that business_users had access to are removed or added, or where business_users might need to adapt their goods or reprogramme their services to be able to continue to operate through the online_intermediation_services.

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(36) Providers of online_intermediation_services might in certain cases restrict in their terms_and_conditions the ability of business_users to offer goods or services to consumers under more favourable conditions through other means than through those online_intermediation_services.
In those cases, the providers concerned should set out the grounds for doing so, in particular with reference to the main economic, commercial or legal considerations for the restrictions.
This transparency obligation should however not be understood as affecting the assessment of the legality of such restrictions under other acts of Union law or the law of Member States that is in accordance with Union law, including in the areas of competition and unfair commercial practices, and the application of such laws.

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(44) Various factors, such as limited financial means, a fear of retaliation and exclusive choice of law and forum provisions in terms_and_conditions, can limit the effectiveness of existing judicial redress possibilities, particularly those which require business_users or corporate_website_users to act individually and identifiably.
To ensure the effective application of this Regulation, organisations, associations representing business_users or corporate_website_users, as well as certain public bodies set up in Member States, should be granted the possibility to take action before national courts in accordance with national law, including national procedural requirements.
Such action before national courts should aim to stop or prohibit infringements of the rules set out in this Regulation and to prevent future damage that could undermine sustainable business relationships in the online platform economy.
In order to ensure that such organisations or associations exercise that right effectively and in an appropriate manner, they should meet certain criteria.
In particular, they must be properly established according to the law of a Member State, be of a non-profit making character and pursue their objectives on a sustained basis.
Those requirements should prevent any ad hoc establishment of organisations or associations for the purpose of a specific action or specific actions, or for the sake of making profits.
Furthermore, it should be ensured that there is no undue influence by any third party providers of financing on decision-making by those organisations or associations.

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(47) The Commission should continuously monitor the application of this Regulation in close cooperation with the Member States.
In this context, the Commission should aim to establish a broad information exchange network by leveraging relevant expert bodies, centres of excellence as well as the Observatory on the Online Platform Economy.
Member States should, upon request, provide any relevant information they have in this context to the Commission.
Finally, this exercise should benefit from the overall enhanced transparency in commercial relations between business_users and providers of online_intermediation_services and between corporate_website_users and online_search_engines that this Regulation aims to achieve.
In order to carry out its monitoring and review duties effectively under this Regulation, the Commission should endeavour to gather information from providers of online_intermediation_services.
Providers of online_intermediation_services should cooperate in good faith in facilitating the gathering of such data, where applicable.

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(48) Codes of conduct, drawn up either by the service providers concerned or by organisations or associations representing them, can contribute to the proper application of this Regulation and should therefore be encouraged.
When drawing up such codes of conduct, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, account should be taken of the specific features of the sectors concerned as well as of the specific characteristics of SMEs.
Such codes of conduct should be worded in an objective and non-discriminatory way.

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(52) This Regulation seeks to ensure full respect for the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial as laid down in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and promote the application of the freedom to conduct a business as laid down in Article 16 of the Charter,

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keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN