keyboard_tab REGIS - Reg. Intermediation Services 2019/1150 EN

(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.

(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.

(37) In order to enable business_users, including those whose use of the relevant online_intermediation_services might have been restricted, suspended or terminated, to have access to immediate, suitable and effective possibilities of redress, providers of online_intermediation_services should provide for an internal complaint-handling system.

  That internal complaint-handling system should be based on principles of transparency and equal treatment applied to equivalent situations, aimed at ensuring that a significant proportion of complaints can be solved bilaterally by the provider of online_intermediation_services and the relevant business_user in a reasonable period of time.

  The providers of online_intermediation_services might maintain in force during the duration of the complaint the decision that they have taken.

  Any attempt to reach an agreement through the internal complaint handling-process does not affect the rights of providers of online_intermediation_services or business_users to initiate judicial proceedings at any time during or after the internal complaint-handling process.

  In addition, providers of online_intermediation_services should publish and, at least annually, verify information on the functioning and effectiveness of their internal complaint-handling system to help business_users to understand the main types of issues that can arise in the context of the provision of different online_intermediation_services and the possibility of reaching a quick and effective bilateral resolution.