E Commerce Law And Practice In Europe

With the massive explosion of e-commerce, and especially the use of the Internet as a transnational and instant medium for business transactions, has come a whole range of new laws and regulations - and, inevitably, a minefield of accompanying uncertainties and potential pitfalls. So what exactly are the legal issues companies need to address, and what are their implications in real terms for the business world? Find the answers in this groundbreaking study undertaken for the European Commission within the framework of the ECLIP project. With a brief to provide practical help for businesses and e-commerce initiatives, this series of cutting-edge reviews examines and evaluates the special rules designed to regulate the Internet - both at a European and at national level in the Member States. It also explains the relevant technological developments and evaluates them against the legal background. This is an essential guide for legal and corporate practitioners alike, as well as software developers and the consultancy community internationally. A publication of the ECLIP network

This unique text deals with the most important legal areas for e-commerce related business in most of the member states in Europe as well as the USA. Topics that are dealt with include: contract law, consumer protection, intellectual property law, unfair competition, antitrust law, liability of providers, money transactions, privacy and data protection.

This collection of essays by well known specialists in e-commerce and Internet law, drawn from both academe and practice, analyses recent crucial legislation which has created, for the first time, a legal regime governing European electronic commerce.

This book elaborates and updates a staff exchange that took place in 2001 among legal scholars from the Universities of Oxford and Leiden. Its insights represent some of the best-informed thinking on the legal aspects of this all-pervasive feature of contemporary society.

Producers and Consumers in EU E-Commerce Law argues that the European Union is failing adequately to protect consumers' critical interests in the area of e-commerce. The book compares the Union's close protection of producers' critical interests in e-commerce, considered in terms of authorship and of 'domain-identity', with its faltering steps towards protection of consumers' corresponding interests, considered in terms of fair trading, privacy and (on behalf of children) morality. The book assesses the threats posed to those interests, the extent to which self-help can and does neutralise those threats and, as regards any gaps left, the extent to which the Union has stepped into the breach. The argument is important given that surveys show low levels of consumer confidence in European cross-border e-commerce, a motor of integration par excellence.

This book outlines and analyses the legislative activity of the Union in an area which is currently experiencing exponential growth in terms of both commercial activity and legal significance. The scope of the book is current,pending and proposed Internet-related law on contracts, copyright, data protection, commercial communications, financial services, electronic cash and electronic signatures. John Dickie argues that the Union is in the process of displacing Member State autonomy in the regulation of the Internet. Within that frame, it is argued that there is a lack of focus on the individual in the electronic marketplace and a lack of co-ordination between relevant legislative instruments. This book will be of interest to all those engaged with Union and Internet law, including lawyers, policy-makers and academics.

This timely and detailed book is a state of the art overview of Internet law in the EU, and in particular of the EU regulatory framework which applies to the Internet. At the same time it serves as a critical evaluation of the EU's policy and governance methods and a comparative analysis, mainly contrasting American with EU solutions. The book begins by examining the EU constitutional context within which the Internet is regulated and the various policy documents which informed the regulation over the years. It then continues to describe the basic instruments in each of the relevant fields, covering electronic commerce, jurisdiction, content regulation, intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy and criminal regulation. Each is observed as a framework through which the Internet is regulated. Rather than provide a comprehensive catalogue of applicable instruments, the author analyses their interaction. EU Internet Law will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners, and will be of interest to the legally-minded and legally-informed public as it discusses issues of general importance and interest.

Since the second edition (2010) of this invaluable book – primary texts with expert article-by-article commentary on European data protection, e-commerce and information technology (IT) regulation, including analysis of case law – there has been a marked shift in regulatory focus. It can be said that, without knowing it, EU citizens have migrated from an information society to a digital single market to a data-driven economy. This thoroughly revised and updated third edition pinpoints, in a crystal-clear format, the meaning and application of currently relevant provisions enacted at the European and Member State levels, allowing practitioners and other interested parties to grasp the exact status of such laws, whether in force, under construction, controversial or proposed. Material has been rearranged and brought into line with the vibrant and constantly shifting elements in this field, with detailed attention to developments (most new to this edition) in such issues as the following: · cybersecurity; · privacy rights; · supply of digital content; · consumer rights in electronic commerce; · Geo-blocking; · open Internet; · contractual rules for online sale of (tangible) goods; · competition law in the IT sectors; · consumer online dispute resolution; · electronic signatures; and · reuse of public sector information. There is a completely new section on electronic identification, trust and security regulation, defining the trend towards an effective e-commerce framework protecting consumers and businesses accessing content or buying goods and services online. The contributors offer a very useful and practical review and analysis of the instruments, taking into account the fluidity and the transiency of the regulation of these very dynamic phenomena. This book will be quickly taken up by the myriad professionals – lawyers, officials and academics – engaged with data protection, e-commerce and IT on a daily basis.