European Commission wishes to broaden notice & takedown procedures

The European Commission (EC) adopted the Communication on e-commerce and other online services announced in the ‘Digital Agenda’ and ‘Single Market Act’ last Wednesday. According to the Communication, the EC wishes for a horizontal European framework for notice and action procedures, in view of the growing volume of statutory law and case law in the Member States.

Among others, the Communication sets out EC’s vision on the principal obstacles to develop e-commerce regarding illegal content, such as the existing fragmentation of notice & takedown systems and the conflicting jurisprudence in Member States. The Communication is accompanied by a staff working paper, which conducts an analysis of the factors hindering the development of e-commerce and presents an evaluation of Directive 2000/31/EC on Electronic Commerce.

To combat illegal content more effectively, the EC intends to adjust Directive 2000/31/EC regarding enforcement of intellectual property rights. The EC wishes to accomplish this by improving the framework for civil law proceedings throughout the EU. Therefore, the EC plans to adjust the notice & takedown procedure. At the moment, it is possible to takedown illegal content in case its administrator doesn’t remove content, after he received a notice thereof by the hosting provider.

The EC wishes to broaden the takedown by establishing a notice & action framework. For instance, the term ‘action’ is mentioned, which is broader than the current term ‘takedown’ of illegal content. Furthermore, this action  includes, among others, ‘blocking’ of websites (footnote 137 of the staff working paper). This means the website is still online, but is not accessible for internet users. By adopting an initiative, such as this one, the EC hopes to establish a coherent framework for the Member States.

At the moment, it is unclear what kind of notice & action procedures the EC will adopt and therefore an impact assessment will follow. Through the impact assessment, the EC hopes to determine what kind of initiative it will adopt after thoroughly researching the different possibilities.

References: Boek9.nl, European Commission.

By: Karen Groen