keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(24) The ranking of goods and services by the providers of online_intermediation_services has an important impact on consumer choice and, consequently, on the commercial success of the business_users offering those goods and services to consumers.

  Ranking refers to the relative prominence of the offers of business_users or relevance given to search results as presented, organised or communicated by providers of online_intermediation_services or by providers of online_search_engines, resulting from the use of algorithmic sequencing, rating or review mechanisms, visual highlights, or other saliency tools, or combinations thereof.

  Predictability entails that providers of online_intermediation_services determine ranking in a non-arbitrary manner.

  Providers should therefore outline the main parameters determining ranking beforehand, in order to improve predictability for business_users, to allow them to better understand the functioning of the ranking mechanism and to enable them to compare the ranking practices of various providers.

  The specific design of this transparency obligation is important for business_users as it implies the identification of a limited set of parameters that are most relevant out of a possibly much larger number of parameters that have some impact on ranking.

  This reasoned description should help business_users to improve the presentation of their goods and services, or some inherent characteristics of those goods or services.

  The notion of main parameter should be understood to refer to any general criteria, processes, specific signals incorporated into algorithms or other adjustment or demotion mechanisms used in connection with the ranking.

(25) The description of the main parameters determining ranking should also include an explanation of any possibility for business_users to actively influence ranking against remuneration, as well as an explanation of the relative effects thereof.

  Remuneration could, in this respect, refer to payments made with the main or sole aim to improve ranking, as well as indirect remuneration in the form of the acceptance by a business_user of additional obligations of any kind which may have this as its practical effect, such as the use of services that are ancillary or of any premium features.

  The content of the description, including the number and type of main parameters, can accordingly vary strongly depending on the specific online_intermediation_services, but should provide business_users with an adequate understanding of how the ranking mechanism takes account of the characteristics of the actual goods or services offered by the business_user, and their relevance to the consumers of the specific online_intermediation_services.

  The indicators used for measuring the quality of goods or services of business_users, the use of editors and their ability to influence the ranking of those goods or services, the amplitude of the impact of remuneration on ranking as well as elements that do not or only remotely relate to the good or service itself, such as presentational features of the online offer, could be examples of main parameters that, when included in a general description of the ranking mechanism in plain and intelligible language, should assist business_users in obtaining the required adequate understanding of its functioning.

(26) Similarly, the ranking of websites by the providers of online_search_engines, notably of those websites through which undertakings offer goods and services to consumers, has an important impact on consumer choice and the commercial success of corporate_website_users.

  Providers of online_search_engines should therefore provide a description of the main parameters determining the ranking of all indexed websites and the relative importance of those main parameters as opposed to other parameters, including those of corporate_website_users as well as other websites.

  In addition to the characteristics of the goods and services and their relevance for consumers, this description should in the case of online_search_engines also allow corporate_website_users to obtain an adequate understanding of whether, and if so how and to what extent, certain design characteristics of the website used, such as their optimisation for display on mobile telecommunications devices, is taken into account.

  It should also include an explanation of any possibility for corporate_website_users to actively influence ranking against remuneration, as well as an explanation of the relative effects thereof.

  In the absence of a contractual relationship between providers of online_search_engines and corporate_website_users, that description should be available to the public in an obvious and easily accessible location on the relevant online_search_engine.

  Areas of websites that require users to log in or register should not be understood as easily and publicly available in this sense.

(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.