keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(2) Online intermediation services can be crucial for the commercial success of undertakings who use such services to reach consumers.

  To fully exploit the benefits of the online platform economy, it is therefore important that undertakings can trust online_intermediation_services with which they enter into commercial relationships.

  This is important mainly because the growing intermediation of transactions through online_intermediation_services, fuelled by strong data-driven indirect network effects, leads to an increased dependence of such business_users, particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), on those services in order for them to reach consumers.

  Given that increasing dependence, the providers of those services often have superior bargaining power, which enables them to, in effect, behave unilaterally in a way that can be unfair and that can be harmful to the legitimate interests of their businesses users and, indirectly, also of consumers in the Union.

  For instance, they might unilaterally impose on business_users practices which grossly deviate from good commercial conduct, or are contrary to good faith and fair dealing.

  This Regulation addresses such potential frictions in the online platform economy.

(3) Consumers have embraced the use of online_intermediation_services.

  A competitive, fair, and transparent online ecosystem where companies behave responsibly is also essential for consumer welfare.

  Ensuring the transparency of, and trust in, the online platform economy in business-to-business relations could also indirectly help to improve consumer trust in the online platform economy.

  Direct impacts of the development of the online platform economy on consumers are, however, addressed by other Union law, especially the consumer acquis.

(4) Similarly, online_search_engines can be important sources of Internet traffic for undertakings which offer goods or services to consumers through websites and can therefore significantly affect the commercial success of such corporate_website_users offering their goods or services online in the internal market.

  In this regard, the ranking of websites by providers of online_search_engines, including of those websites through which corporate_website_users offer their goods and services to consumers, has an important impact on consumer choice and the commercial success of those corporate_website_users.

  Even in the absence of a contractual relationship with corporate_website_users, providers of online_search_engines can therefore, in effect, behave unilaterally in a way that can be unfair and that can be harmful to the legitimate interests of corporate_website_users and, indirectly, also of consumers in the Union.

(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.

(29) Ancillary goods and services should be understood as goods and services offered to the consumer immediately prior to the completion of a transaction initiated on online_intermediation_services to complement the primary good or service being offered by the business_user.

  Ancillary goods and services refer to products that typically depend on, and are directly related to, the primary good or service in order to function.

  Therefore, the term should exclude goods and services that are merely being sold in addition to the primary good or service in question rather than being complementary in their nature.

  Examples of ancillary services include repair services for a specific good or financial products such as car rental insurance offered so as to complement the specific goods or services being offered by the business_user.

  Likewise, ancillary goods might include goods that complement the specific product being offered by the business_user by constituting an upgrade or a customisation tool linked to that specific product.

  Providers of online_intermediation_services offering goods or services to consumers that are ancillary to a good or service sold by a business_user, using their online_intermediation_services, should set out in their terms_and_conditions a description of the type of ancillary_goods_and_services being offered.

  Such a description should be available in the terms_and_conditions regardless of whether the ancillary good or service is being provided by the provider of online_intermediation_services itself or by a third party.

  Such a description should be comprehensive enough to allow a business_user to understand whether any good or service is being sold as ancillary to the business_user’s good or service.

  The description should not necessarily include the specific good or service, but rather the type of product being offered as complementary to the primary product of the business_user.

  Furthermore, this description should in all circumstances include whether and under what conditions a business_user is allowed to offer its own ancillary good or service in addition to the primary good or service that it is offering through the online_intermediation_services.

(30) Where a provider of online_intermediation_services itself offers certain goods or services to consumers through its own online_intermediation_services, or does so through a business_user which it controls, that provider might compete directly with other business_users of its online_intermediation_services which are not controlled by the provider, which might give the provider an economic incentive and the ability to use its control over the online_intermediation_services to provide technical or economic advantages to its own offering, or those offered through a business_user which it controls, which it could deny to competing business_users.

  Such behaviour could undermine fair competition and restrict consumer choice.

  In such situations, in particular, it is important that the provider of online_intermediation_services acts in a transparent manner and provides an appropriate description of, and sets out the considerations for any differentiated treatment, whether through legal, commercial or technical means, such as functionalities involving operating systems that it might give in respect of goods or services it offers itself compared to those offered by business_users.

  To ensure proportionality, this obligation should apply at the level of the overall online_intermediation_services, rather than at the level of individual goods or services offered through those services.

(31) Where a provider of an online_search_engine itself offers certain goods or services to consumers through its own online_search_engine, or does so through a corporate_website_user which it controls, that provider might compete directly with other corporate_website_users of its online_search_engine which are not controlled by the provider.

  In such situations, in particular, it is important that the provider of the online_search_engine acts in a transparent manner and provides a description of any differentiated treatment, whether through legal, commercial or technical means, that it might give in respect of goods or services it offers itself or through a corporate_website_user which it controls, compared to those offered by competing corporate_website_users.

  To ensure proportionality, this obligation should apply at the level of the overall online_search_engine, rather than at the level of individual goods or services offered through those services.