11 Facts About E-Commerce Directive

E-Commerce Directive, adopted in 2000, sets up an Internal Market framework for online services.

Finally, the E-Commerce Directive encourages the drawing up of voluntary codes of conduct and includes articles to enhance cooperation between Member States.

The e-Commerce Directive aimed to achieve this objective by offering a flexible, technology-neutral and balanced legal framework.

The provisions of the e-Commerce Directive thus apply to certain activities or services and not to a specific category of providers.

E-Commerce Directive applies to information society services established in the EU.

Internal market clause in article 3 of the e-Commerce Directive is one of the key principle of the e-Commerce Directive.

Article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive is arguably one of the most discussed articles in the e-Commerce Directive, in part due to the extensive body of case law related to the article.

Article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive provides the basis for the development of notice and take down procedures for illegal and harmful information.

Article 14 e-Commerce Directive has been further interpreted by several cases in front of the European Court of Justice.

E-Commerce Directive does allow Member States to allow internet service providers to apply duties of care to detect and prevent certain types of illegal activities.

Additionally, Member States have adopted diverging regulation to tackle online harms, new European legislation has been adopted related to specific online harms, and almost 20 years of case law by the European Court of Justice on the e-Commerce Directive have made it very difficult for companies to navigate this legal framework and scale-up across the European Single Market.