On 14 June 2019, the EU Council approved the new European Regulation promoting fairness and transparency for companies using online intermediation services.
The new Regulation starts from two main observations. First, some online platforms enjoy greater bargaining power, which can lead them to behave unfairly towards companies that depend on them for access to new business opportunities. Secondly, consumers often rely on the ranking of websites in search engine results, without these companies being subject to transparency requirements in this area.
The new Regulation will require online intermediation platforms to make their general terms and conditions easily accessible, clear and comprehensible and to enable the user company, for example, to know what additional products and services the platform offers to consumers in parallel with the user company’s offer.
The new Regulation aims to promote a fair, predictable, sustainable and reliable online business environment, in particular by providing a legal framework for the general conditions of online platforms, ensuring transparency and predictability of the parameters that determine the ranking of their results.
The scope of the Regulation should include, for example, platforms for electronic commerce, online software application services, such as application shops and online social network services.
This regulation will come into force in the summer of 2020.
You can read the text of the Regulation via the following link : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A52018PC0238
