Brussels, BELGIUM — Today EU Member States reached a political agreement on the Council’s position on the ‘platform-to-business’ (P2B) Regulation. The adoption of the so-called ‘general approach’ is the first key step towards the final negotiation and adoption of the Regulation by Council and the European Parliament. The European Parliament has yet to adopt its position.
The P2B Regulation was proposed by the European Commission in April this year. The proposal seeks to ensure greater transparency and predictability in the commercial relationships between online intermediation services and their business users. Search engines also fall in the scope of the Regulation, but in a more limited manner.
The following statement can be attributed to Jakob Kucharczyk, CCIA Europe Vice President, Competition & EU Regulatory Policy:
“EU Member States and the Austrian Presidency in particular must be commended for their swift negotiations. The Council sends a strong message that increasing transparency and predictability should remain the Regulation’s main purpose. Member States clearly have no appetite for regulatory experiments with uncertain outcomes.”