Fresh battle looms over e-commerce

Date: 20/04/2000

By Peter Chapman

BRITISH Liberal MEP Diana Wallis has vowed to bounce back after a clash over proposals for dealing with legal wrangles between online traders and their customers left the European Parliament's role in shaping EU e-commerce policy in tatters.

The pledge came after Wallis and her Socialist allies' took the rare step late last month of voting down her own report on proposals to update an agreement known as the Brussels convention, which governs which courts have jurisdiction in cross-border legal disputes.

Wallis said the changes to her report demanded by centre-right rivals when it was debated by the Parliament's legal affairs committee would have robbed consumers of vital legal rights. She explained that she had decided to vote against it because the amended paper would not have reflected her views.

She is now working on a new draft of the report and hopes to mobilise enough support to ensure the new version is approved without major changes.

Under the European Commission's original proposals, which have won the support of Union justice and home affairs ministers, online shoppers would be able to take legal disputes over goods and services to their national courts.

Wallis' report supported this approach, but centre-right MEPs argued it would make a mockery of the approach agreed at last month's Lisbon summit, which stressed the need for the EU to remove the barriers faced by the small companies which are expected to be the engine of growth in the Union's fledgling e-commerce market.

They tabled a series of amendments which, they claimed, would be fairer on small businesses while still offering consumers redress. These included allowing firms to stipulate on their web sites that disputes would be dealt with by courts in their own country rather than in the customer's.

British Liberal MEP Diana Wallis has vowed to bounce back after a clash over proposals for dealing with legal wrangles between online traders and their customers left the European Parliament's role in shaping EU e-commerce policy in tatters.