2 12 December 2000

News:

The Confederation of British Industry has attacked the decision of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers to adopt the Brussels regulation which will allow consumers to sue in their own country, companies who do business on line.

The United Nations Model Law on Electronic Signatures, if approved in its present form, threatens to disrupt global e-commerce according to Identrus, the world’s largest digital signature certification authority.

National domain name registrars are stepping up their campaign to force ICANN to agree contracts and have made clear they will continue to hold back payments until a contract is agreed. “They want money and we want a contract,” said Dr Willie Black, chief executive of Nominet. He denied that the national registrars wanted to set up an alternative structure to ICANN.

Features:

The dispute between the National Domain Name Registrars and ICANN is symptomatic of the strains that the growth of the internet has placed on many institutions whose tasks are to regulate or facilitate its running and development.

The European Patent Organisation Conference meeting in Munich at the end of November decided not to delete computer programs from the list of non-patentable inventions.

US companies have so far shown little enthusiasm for registering under the ‘safe harbor’ data protection agreement between the United States and the European Union. The US Department of Commerce list had just 12 organisations registered as of 14 December and the majority of these were organisations from the data privacy world.

B2B emarketplaces are under scrutiny from the European Commission. However, because B2B marketplaces are so new, there have been few cases from which to ascertain the Commission’s attitude. Both existing and potential B2B players are calling for the European Union to end the uncertainty and set out clear guidelines over the regulation of internet marketplaces. This article examines the current state of regulation and the prospects for the future.

When UNCITRAL creates a model law that will become the lowest common denominator of legislation in the field around the world, it must do so in a way that does not invite unnecessary local mischief. For e-commerce to deliver upon its global promise, local law must not seek to interfere.

Next year, the domain name system, which is the underlying technical system which allows the Internet to operate, is to be rapidly expanded. ICANN, the governing body of the Internet has announced its intention to release seven new top level domains, and the European Union, having received ICANN’s permission to do so, has published its intention to release a .eu domain (although the precise parameters of it are as yet not finalised).

The final text of the Brussels Regulation giving consumers the better access to justice in cross border disputes has now been published. It is due to come into force in March. You can find the text at www.europa.eu.int. The gist of the new law is that if you buy goods or services from a website based abroad but within the EC, you don’t have to sue in the courts where the business is based - you can sue in your own court.

Far from resolving the thorny issue of in which country should cross border litigation between business and consumers reside, the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the 15 EU State’s decision (on 8 December) ) to adopt the Brussels Regulation opens up a Pandora box of problems for UK businesses

The European Council of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) meeting on 27 November referred back for further consideration the European Commission’s Draft Directive on Digital Goods and Services. This article examines the European approach to this issue.