Brussels, BELGIUM — Negotiators from the European Parliament, Council of the EU and the European Commission this morning reached a political agreement on the so-called ‘Platform-to-Business’ Regulation (P2B). The compromise text will now have to be formally approved by the European Parliament and EU Member States in coming weeks.
The initial purpose of the P2B Regulation was to increase transparency and predictability in the business relationships between online intermediary services and businesses that use them. In today’s agreement, negotiators decided to largely adhere to this initial purpose as certain proposals to introduce greater regulation of business practices were dropped or accommodated within the Regulation’s wider transparency obligations. The same is true for attempts that aimed at artificially extending the scope of the proposal.
The following statement can be attributed to Jakob Kucharczyk, CCIA Europe Vice President, Competition & EU Regulatory Policy:
“Increasing transparency and predictability are goals our sector supports. Stiff business practice regulation covering a vast range of online businesses has never been the intention of this proposal. It seems EU policymakers understood that imposing such a one-size-fits-all framework makes little sense in one of the most diverse and dynamic sectors of the economy.”