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The EU's digital trade policy

Briefing 25-01-2024

Digital trade has become a key element in the EU's trade policy. Every modern trade agreement that the EU has concluded contains a dedicated digital trade chapter. The digital trade provisions in EU trade agreements have evolved over time, which reflects the increasing role digital trade plays today in the world economy. While there is no clear measurement of digital trade yet, the OECD estimates nevertheless that digital trade represents around 25 % (in 2020) of total trade. The EU, as the world's ...

This study analyses common terms in contracts of digital service providers, indicating when they could significantly distort the balance between the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of consumers and should, therefore, fall within the scope of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive. Further, the study discusses the particularities of the assessment of online transparency of terms of digital service providers and sanctions they could face if they breach the current consumer protection ...

Geopolitical Aspects of Digital Trade

Grinnanailís 11-11-2020

This in-depth analysis discusses issues in trade in digitally deliverable services and the geopolitics of digital trade policy. Digitally deliverable services are becoming increasingly important for global value chains, both in terms of final products exported to other countries, and in terms of inputs embedded in manufactured goods. To harness the potential of digital trade in services, both the regulation of the digital means by which a service is traded and the regulation of the services themselves ...

WTO e-commerce negotiations

Sracfhéachaint 05-10-2020

While e-commerce represents an increasing portion of the economy, international regulation of e-commerce is lagging behind. In 2017, the WTO Ministerial Conference issued a Joint Statement Initiative signalling the intention to launch plurilateral e-commerce talks. In January 2019, in the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, 76 of 164 WTO members, among them the EU, Australia, China, Japan, and the USA launched e commerce negotiations. Members seek a high-standard outcome building on WTO ...

Consumer sale of goods

Briefing 12-03-2018

On 22 February 2018, the European Parliament's Committee for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) adopted its report on the Commission proposal for a new directive on the consumer sale of goods. The Commission's original proposal, dating from 2015, was replaced on 31 October 2017 by an amended one which intends to replace the existing Consumer Sales Directive dating from 1999 entirely, instead of regulating only online and other distance contracts as had originally been planned. By ...

On 21 November 2017, the European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Committee (IMCO) and Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) adopted their joint report on the European Commission's proposal for a directive regulating the private-law aspects of contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services in the internal market. The Council of the EU agreed on a general approach in June 2017. Trilogue meetings began on 5 December 2017 and are still on-going. The main changes proposed by the ...

• Platforms, understood as a method of organising digital markets that allows two groups of users (suppliers and customers) to meet, are one of the pillars of the digital market. They facilitate its development, providing adequate solutions to the needs of the sharing, collaborative, data, and P2P economies. • Platforms that often operate as marketplaces have a triangle structure where users must first conclude a contract with the platform to be subsequently able to conclude contracts between themselves ...

What if blockchain changed social values?

Sracfhéachaint 10-05-2017

Blockchain technology could shake up many aspects of our daily lives, from the currency we use to the purchases we make. But what is the impact on our social values, and what can policy-makers do about it?

In 2015, the Commission presented two proposals for directives: on the online sale of goods to consumers, and on the supply of digital content to consumers. The two proposals need to be analysed in the context of the existing Consumer Sales Directive from 1999, which is currently under revision as part of the REFIT exercise. If the two proposals enter into force, consumer sales transactions will be regulated by three instruments: with regard to tangible goods sold face to face – by the Consumer Sales ...