Brussels, 24/08/2010 (Agence Europe) - 10 years after Directive 2000/31/EC governing e-trade was adopted, the European Commission is wondering why e-trade still only accounts for under 2% of total trade in the European Union. It has launched a public consultation exercise, which will run until Friday 15 October, to gather the views of stakeholders (public authorities, traders, regulated professions, and consumers) on the implementation of the European legislation. The findings of the exercise will inform debate ahead of adoption of a communication on e-trade in the first half of 2011.
The Commission is seeking feed-back in the following areas: - the level of development, both national and cross-border, of information society services; - the operation in member states of possible exemptions from the free provision of e-trade services within the internal market; - cross-border on-line commercial communications, in particular by the regulated professions (pharmacists, lawyers, magistrates); - the development of on-line press services; - the interpretation of the provisions concerning the liability of intermediary information society service providers (data transport, storage and hosting); - administrative cooperation among member states and with the Commission; - the resolution of on-line disputes. (M.B./transl.rt)