REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(b)	are easily available to business_users at all stages of their commercial relationship with the provider of online_intermediation_services, including in the pre-contractual stage;

(c)	set out the grounds for decisions to suspend or terminate or impose any other kind of restriction upon, in whole or in part, the provision of their online_intermediation_services to business_users;

(d)	include information on any additional distribution channels and potential affiliate programmes through which providers of online_intermediation_services might market goods and services offered by business_users;

(e)	include general information regarding the effects of the terms_and_conditions on the ownership and control of intellectual property rights of business_users.

2. Providers of online_intermediation_services shall notify, on a durable_medium, to the business_users concerned any proposed changes of their terms_and_conditions.

The proposed changes shall not be implemented before the expiry of a notice period which is reasonable and proportionate to the nature and extent of the envisaged changes and to their consequences for the business_user concerned. That notice period shall be at least 15 days from the date on which the provider of online_intermediation_services notifies the business_users concerned about the proposed changes. Providers of online_intermediation_services shall grant longer notice periods when this is necessary to allow business_users to make technical or commercial adaptations to comply with the changes.

The business_user concerned shall have the right to terminate the contract with the provider of online_intermediation_services before the expiry of the notice period. Such termination shall take effect within 15 days from the receipt of the notice pursuant to the first subparagraph, unless a shorter period applies to the contract.

The business_user concerned may, either by means of a written statement or a clear affirmative action, waive the notice period referred to in the second subparagraph at any moment from the receipt of the notice pursuant to the first subparagraph.

During the notice period, submitting new goods or services to the online_intermediation_services shall be considered clear affirmative action to waive the notice period, except 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. In such cases, the notice period shall not be considered automatically to be waived where the business_user submits new goods and services.

3. Terms and conditions, or specific provisions thereof, which do not comply with the requirements of paragraph 1, as well as changes to terms_and_conditions implemented by a provider of online_intermediation_services contrary to the provisions of paragraph 2 shall be null and void.

4. The notice period set out in the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 shall not apply where a provider of online_intermediation_services:

(a)	is subject to a legal or regulatory obligation which requires it to change its terms_and_conditions in a manner which does not allow it to respect the notice period referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 2;

(b)	has exceptionally to change its terms_and_conditions to address an unforeseen and imminent danger related to defending the online_intermediation_services, consumers or business_users from fraud, malware, spam, data breaches or other cybersecurity risks.

5. Providers of online_intermediation_services shall ensure that the identity of the business_user providing the goods or services on the online_intermediation_services is clearly visible.

Article 18

Review

1. By 13 January 2022, and subsequently every three years, the Commission shall evaluate this Regulation and report to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee.

2. The first evaluation of this Regulation shall be carried out, in particular, with a view to the following:

(a)	assessing the compliance with, and impact on the online platform economy of, the obligations laid down in Articles 3 to 10;

(b)	assessing the impact and effectiveness of any established codes of conduct to improve fairness and transparency;

(c)	investigating further the problems caused by the dependence of business_users on online_intermediation_services, and problems caused by unfair commercial practices by providers of online_intermediation_services, and to determine further to which extent those practices continue to be widespread;

(d)

investigating whether the competition between goods or services offered by a business_user and goods or services offered or controlled by a provider of online_intermediation_services constitutes fair competition and whether providers of online_intermediation_services misuse privileged data in this regard;

(e)	assessing the effect of this Regulation on any possible imbalances in the relationships between providers of operating systems and their business_users;

(f)	assessing whether the scope of the Regulation, especially as regards the definition of ‘business user’, is suitable in that it does not encourage bogus self-employment.

The first and subsequent evaluations shall establish whether additional rules, including regarding enforcement, may be required to ensure a fair, predictable, sustainable and trusted online business environment within the internal market. Following the evaluations, the Commission shall take appropriate measures, which may include legislative proposals.

3. Member States shall provide any relevant information they have that the Commission may require for the purposes of drawing up the report referred to in paragraph 1.

4. In carrying out the evaluation of this Regulation, the Commission shall take into account inter alia, the opinions and reports presented to it by the group of experts for the Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. It shall also take into account the content and functioning of any codes of conduct referred to in Article 17, where appropriate.

whereas

(9) Since online_intermediation_services and online_search_engines typically have a global dimension, this Regulation should apply to providers of those services regardless of whether they are established in a Member State or outside the Union, provided that two cumulative conditions are met.
firstly, the business_users or corporate_website_users should be established in the Union.
Secondly, the business_users or corporate_website_users should, through the provision of those services, offer their goods or services to consumers located in the Union at least for part of the transaction.
In order to determine whether business_users or corporate_website_users are offering goods or services to consumers located in the Union, it is necessary to ascertain whether it is apparent that the business_users or corporate_website_users direct their activities to consumers located in one or more Member States.
This criterion should be interpreted in accordance with the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on point (c) of Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) and point (b) of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4).
Such consumers should be located in the Union, but do not need to have their place of residence in the Union nor have the nationality of any Member State.
Accordingly, this Regulation should not apply where business_users or corporate websites users are not established in the Union or where they are established in the Union but where they use online_intermediation_services or online_search_engines to offer goods or services exclusively to consumers located outside the Union or to persons who are not consumers.
Furthermore, this Regulation should apply irrespective of the law otherwise applicable to a contract.

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keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN