Clamour for rethink on e-commerce

Date: 04/11/1999

By Peter Chapman

EU FIRMS will this week call on member states to tear up proposals which, they claim, could drive them out of the Union's fledgling electronic commerce market.

The protest follows the decision taken by justice and home affairs ministers in July to launch EU rules which would allow customers to take legal disputes over goods bought on the Web to a court in their own country.

Consumer groups support the draft regulation, claiming that it would make it easier for online customers to sue firms selling faulty goods over the Web. But critics, including a coalition of 14 European business, publishing, marketing and advertising groups and the small business lobby group UEAPME, say it was approved without prior consultation and would derail a separate e-commerce proposal launched last year by former Single Market Commissioner Mario Monti.

They are also calling on the Commission and governments to abandon separate proposals which would force companies to comply with foreign rules governing the marketing methods used to target customers.

Under Monti's proposals, firms would be allowed to sell goods and services anywhere in the EU as long as they complied with rules and regulations in their own member state.

But critics fear this approach will be scuppered by the new plan endorsed by justice and home affairs ministers. They claim this would force firms to employ teams of lawyers across the Union to ensure they complied with local regulations.

Industry will deliver its demands for a rethink at a hearing this week. It will also call on the Finnish presidency to resist German demands for a compromise on the planned e-commerce directive to allow exemptions for some controversial national rules.

EU firms are to call on Member States to tear up proposals which, they claim, could drive them out of the Union's fledgling electronic commerce market.