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Joint letter on Market Surveillance and Product Safety Regulation

By EDRi · October 9, 2013

On 2 October 2013, EDRi signed a joint letter together with other civil society groups and organisations (CCIA, EDIMa, EuroISPA, EEA and EMOTA) asking the competent EU institutions to act on the amendments to the draft Regulations on Market Surveillance and Product Safety that could have far-reaching consequences affecting online commerce and Internet intermediaries freedom.

The letter asks not to extend the scope of the Regulation to cover intellectual property, as that would undermine legal certainty and put an excessive burden on businesses, particularly SMEs.

Also, the text points to a number of amendments that would undermine the principle of technology neutrality and would specifically burden e-commerce by singling out ‘online’ trade and seeking to impose far-reaching and inappropriate obligations on intermediaries, by asking them obligations of general monitoring. This would be contradictory to the current European legislation, the Charter of Human Rights and recent SABAM rulings from the European Court of Justice.

Joint letter on Market Surveillance and Product Safety Regulation (2.10.2013)
http://www.edri.org/files/Marketsurveillance071013.pdf