The “Digital Republic” Bill has been introduced in France in order better to meet the challenges already posed by the digital transformation of the society. The Bill pursues three objectives: 1. The first objective relates to the free flow of knowledge and data. The Bill establishes an information sharing policy...

Jean-Claude Juncker’s recent State of the Union speech marked the start of another wave of measures in the European Commission’s Digital Single Market initiative. In quick succession following President Juncker’s speech, we saw: Vice President Andrus Ansip and Commissioner Günther Oettinger announcing controversial reforms of telecoms and copyright regulation; and...

The right to have information on personal data that violates the right to honour and privacy removed from the Internet does not allow anyone to “tailor-fit” their past. The right to be forgotten has been at the centre of the ruling of the Supreme Court for the first time. However...

In its quest for a true “ Digital Single Market“, with better online access for consumers and businesses across borders between Member States, the European Commission is using many of its legislative tools to tackle the barriers in its way. Last week, it announced proposed changes to copyright law, to...

As part of the EU’s Digital Single Market initiative, on 9 December 2015 the European Commission published a draft Directive on certain aspects of the supply of digital content. The text of the draft Directive is here. Implications for consumer-facing businesses At Osborne Clarke we have been following the development...

The European Commission has published various proposals on copyright reform and the cross-border portability of online content, on the supply of digital content and on the online sale of goods. These proposals form part of the Commission’s Digital Single Market initiative. Portability of online content We discuss the proposals on...

As we’ve discussed in previous articles, a key focus of the European Commission’s Digital Single Market initiative is to eliminate discrimination between EU consumers on the basis of their location. One of the main issues in this area is geo-blocking, but the Commission is looking at a range of means...

The 2001 Directive on Copyright in the Information Society (2001/29) (the Information Society Directive) attempted to modernise copyright in the EU by introducing a new “restricted act” of communication to the public of a copyright work by electronic means. Such restricted acts cannot be performed without the copyright holder’s permission...

Businesses that collect personal data about their European customers (and to which the European data protection regime applies) tend to be aware that certain legal hurdles must be overcome before they can transfer that data outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). That might, for example, include US businesses that wish...

For the first time in the UK, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA”) contains provisions implying certain consumer-facing rights and remedies into contracts for digital content. So businesses providing digital content to consumers, or to consumer-facing organisations, will need to pay particular attention to the changes introduced by the CRA...