As a follow-up to the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the conclusions of the European Council of 20/21 March 2003 stressing the need for exchanging experience in the field of e-business, the European Commission, Directorate General Enterprise, would be interested in your experience as an enterprise doing e-business. The objective is to collect feedback and practical experiences from the market and to identify still existing practical barriers or new legal problems encountered while conducting business electronically.

The consultation will remain open for responses until 7 November 2003. And..

Members of E-Arbitration-T Portal and related stakeholders are invited to consult the – following questionnaire -
The services of the Commission will analyse the results of the open consultation and discuss them with all relevant stakeholders at a High-level Conference, to be organised in March/April 2004. The conclusions will help to reach the EU’s ambitious Lisbon target of becoming the world’s most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy.

We appreciate your contributions and thank you in advance!

Definition of e-business:
For the purpose of the present questionnaire, “e-business” is defined in a broad sense as the use of electronic telecommunications for business purposes, including:

Online buying
Online selling
Provision of other online services (including marketing and advertising)
Online collaboration with business partners
Online internal business activities: accounting, management

Year 2003

Many organisations expressed they interest in this Green Paper. Most of they have directly participated in the debate launched by the Green Paper, by submitting comments on it. The European Commission would like to thank them for they contribution.

In the context of the consultation exercise launched by the Green Paper, a public hearing will be held on this subject in Brussels on Friday 21 February 2003.

Further detailed information on this event will be posted on this webpage in the next few days, together with a summary of the comments to the Green Paper received by the Commission:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/news/consulting_public/news_consulting_public_en.htm”

Year 2003

This paper aims to be a basic overview of the issues that Online Arbitration raises when dealing with B2B transactions.

Summary of Questions Submitted for Discussion:

Question 1: What is your opinion on the general approach that the EU institutions should follow on ODR and Online Arbitration of B2B transactions? Should the initia-tives be limited to B2B transactions?

Question 2: Do you think that a directive is the most appropriate regulatory instrument to deal with e-commerce issues? And to deal with ODR methods? Do you think that the European Primary Law provides the EU with a legal basis to adopt a directive on ODR methods?

Question 3. Could or should the principles set out in the two recommendations apply indiscriminately to fields other than consumer protection? Of the principles enshrined in the Recommendations, which in your view could be incorporated in the legislation of Member States?

Question 4: Do you think that the EU should follow the Uncitral Model Laws, or should it leave the regulation of Online Arbitration disputes to national laws?

Question 5: What is your opinion on the controversial issues highlighted in section 7? Are they controversial at all? Is this a fictitious debate? What option would you adopt, if any, to solve the inconsistencies? What other alternatives would you propose?

Question 6: Do you think that this is an appropriate time to pass a directive on ODR methods? Would you be in favour of a directive on ODR methods? What are, in your opinion, the legal bases, if any, for a directive on ODR methods?

Question 7: Do you think that the adoption of European standards for Online Arbitration technologies is necessary? Do you think that the EU has the human and technical resources to dictate European Standards without public discussion? Would it be wise to create an interdisciplinary group capable of negotiating standards with other geo-graphic regions?

Question 8: Should there be a register of ODR providers or any other administrative control that ensures the respect of due process rights? Would the intervention of ad-ministrative entities impair the development of ODR bodies?

Question 9: What is your experience in negotiation and enforcement of private mecha-nisms? Should electronic awards be dealt with in an EU directive?

Question 10: Would you eliminate the formal requirements of deposit and notarisation at all? Would you empower notaries and other public authorities to deposit, authenticate and notify the award to the parties?

In your opinion, what are the inconveniences of harmonising the formal requirements of deposit and notarisation and attributing more essential faculties to public authorities?.

Year 2002

Mr Robert Verrue, Director-General of the ECs DG INFSO, referred to eLexPortal during the SME Union Workshop held in the European Parliament on 18th February, as a European Commission action to enhance trust and confidence of EU entrepreneurs and citizen about e-Commerce.

eLexPortal.com offers a single entry point for visitors giving data on policy and regulation in all the EU member states, a Directory service, sources of information and links to relevant WebSites. National legislation and regulations are collected by experts in each EU Member State. The result is legal information available and tailored by means of a Regulatory Engine which gives clear explanations on e-Commerce regulatory issues for the business entrepreneur, with specific relevance to particular business activities and processes.

With the implementation of national legislation on e-Commerce we are now able to offer free of charge complete information covering the 15 EU member countries says Geoffrey Thompson, Managing Director of ERIN and Project Director of eLexPortal. Besides the cross-border aspects of e-Commerce, which are often pre-eminent due to its transnational nature, eLexPortal can be an effective support tool for e-entrepreneurs in their home market. Jan H. Guettler, a Director of Cullen International, stated that: Identifying and selecting the relevant legislation for each European regulatory context entailed a grate deal of effort by our EU-wide network of national experts, but we are now there. According to Mike Dickinson, the eLexPortal Project Manager: we are carrying out awareness-raising actions to enhance the prominence of this effective tool. As far as we know in Europe there is no analogous service for small and medium enterprises, for free.

Project summary

The project supporting eLexPortal.com is funded as an Accompanying Measure of the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme which is a single, integrated research programme managed by the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission, building on the convergence of information processing, communications and media technologies. The European Commission has committed ERIN S.A. to manage the initiative. ERIN S.A. is an Internet technology company specialising in complex information management and dissemination projects in multicultural environments and in producing multi-lingual publishing solutions based on Internet technologies, interactive on-line communities, and traditional publishing techniques.

On the contents side, the eLexPortal.com is powered by Cullen International S.A., a specialist in regulations and regulatory information systems covering electronic commerce and multimedia as well as telecommunications regulations within the Europe and the United States.

Additional support activities will soon be implemented including a HelpDesk, the collection and publication of best practice by way of case studies, providing links and interfaces to existing on-line sources of information, as well as generating on-line tutorials for users of the eLexPortal.com regulatory engine.

URL: www. eLexPortal.com

For further information, please contact:
Carlo Ennio Stasi
eLexPortal PR/Communication
ERIN S.A.
2 Place Virchow
L-2671 Luxembourg
e-mail: carlo@erin.lu
Tel. +352-26 48 50-25
Fax +352-26 48 50-26