— last modified 26 April 2018
EuroCommerce Director-General Christian Verschueren commented on the release today of the European Commission draft regulation on standards for transparent business relations between platforms and their business users:
“Online platforms are drivers of growth and innovation, enabling businesses and consumers to make the most of the opportunities provided by the digital economy. They are very often the easiest first step for small businesses who want to go online and benefit from exposure to a wider customer base without having to make a large investment in digital infrastructure. Any regulation on platforms therefore needs to be carefully balanced to encourage small merchants to go online with confidence of fair treatment, while avoiding unnecessary overregulation. “
We believe that the proposed regulation strikes a good balance between addressing some transparency issues and a key principle in B2B relations, freedom of contract. The underlying approach of this regulation is sensible, laying down the need for transparency in terms and conditions and changes in them, suspension and termination of business users, ranking, and access to data, but not being unnecessarily prescriptive about what those terms and conditions should be. The regulation covers very different types of platforms, from e-commerce marketplaces to online search engines. Since these can be very different, issues specific to the various forms of platform can be best covered by the codes of conduct, which we are happy to see are encouraged. We are also pleased that the Commission has chosen a Regulation laying down the same rules and expectations for platforms and business users across Europe, thus avoiding a proliferation of additional rules imposed by Member States.
The proposal rightly puts emphasis on internal dispute resolution and mediation rather than litigation. Experience from the Supply Chain Initiative in establishing a similar mechanism has shown that this works, and it is encouraging that the same approach has been taken in relation to platforms. We will want to see the provisions for collective action being consistent with the recent proposal under the New Deal for Consumers. While we know that the latter serves a different purpose in terms of collective interests of consumers, in both we will be pressing for sufficient safeguards against frivolous litigation. Associations representing business users in any collective action under the platforms proposal should be able to demonstrate solid legal standing and credibility.
