keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(18) Ensuring transparency in the general terms_and_conditions can be essential to promoting sustainable business relationships and to preventing unfair behaviour to the detriment of business_users.

  Providers of online_intermediation_services should therefore also ensure that the terms_and_conditions are easily available at all stages of the commercial relationship, including to prospective business_users at the pre-contractual phase, and that any changes to those terms are notified on a durable_medium to business_users concerned within a set notice period which is reasonable and proportionate in light of the specific circumstances and which is at least 15 days.

  Proportionate longer notice periods of more than 15 days should be given where the proposed changes to the terms_and_conditions require business_users to make technical or commercial adaptations in order to comply with the change, for example by requiring them to make significant technical adjustments to their goods or services.

  That notice period should not apply where, and to the extent that, it is waived in an unambiguous manner by the business_user concerned or where, and to the extent that, the need to implement the change without respecting the notice period stems from a legal or regulatory obligation incumbent on the service provider under Union or national law.

  However, proposed editorial changes should not be covered by the term ‘change’ in as far as they do not alter the content or meaning of terms_and_conditions.

  The requirement of notifying proposed changes on a durable_medium should enable business_users to review effectively these changes at a later stage.

  Business users should be entitled to terminate their contract within 15 days from the receipt of the notice of any change, unless a shorter period applies to the contract, for example as resulting from national civil law.

(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.

(23) The termination of the whole of the online_intermediation_services and the related deletion of data provided for the use of, or generated through, the provision of online_intermediation_services represent a loss of essential information which could have a significant impact on business_users and could also impair their ability to properly exercise other rights granted to them by this Regulation.

  Therefore, the provider of online_intermediation_services should provide the business_user concerned with a statement of reasons on a durable_medium, at least 30 days before the termination of the provision of the whole of its online_intermediation_services enters into effect.

  However, in cases where a legal or regulatory obligation requires a provider of online_intermediation_services to terminate the provision of the whole of its online_intermediation_services to a given business_user, this notice period should not apply.

  Equally, the notice period of 30 days should not apply where a provider of online_intermediation_services invokes rights of termination under national law in compliance with Union law which allow immediate termination where, taking into account all the circumstances of the specific case and weighing the interests of both parties, it cannot reasonably be expected to continue the contractual relationship until the agreed end or until the expiry of a notice period.

  Finally, the notice period of 30 days should not apply where a provider of online_intermediation_services can demonstrate a repeated infringement of terms_and_conditions.

  The various exceptions to the 30-day notice period can in particular arise in connection with illicit or inappropriate content, the safety of a good or service, counterfeiting, fraud, malware, spam, data breaches, other cybersecurity risks or suitability of the good or service to minors.

  In order to ensure proportionality, providers of online_intermediation_services should, where reasonable and technically feasible, delist only individual goods or services of a business_user.

  Termination of the whole of the online_intermediation_services constitutes the most severe measure.

(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.