NEWS
POLICY
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Consumer protection and confidence is important for the smooth functioning of the Single Market. This can be achieved only with adequate and effective law enforcement setting out rights and obligations of consumers and traders.
Commercial transactions are part of every day life, and eventually problems can occur - be it with a product or a service. However, currently, almost every second consumer who has a complaint related to his/her purchase gives it up. Very often, the consumers are afraid to undergo lengthy and costly judicial litigation proceedings to pursue their complaints. What both consumers and traders often ignore is that there are possibilities to resolve their disputes out-of-court via Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes.
Consumer protection and confidence is important for the smooth functioning of the Single Market. This can be achieved only with adequate and effective law enforcement setting out rights and obligations of consumers and traders.
Commercial transactions are part of every day life, and eventually problems can occur - be it with a product or a service. However, currently, almost every second consumer who has a complaint related to his/her purchase gives it up. Very often, the consumers are afraid to undergo lengthy and costly judicial litigation proceedings to pursue their complaints. What both consumers and traders often ignore is that there are possibilities to resolve their disputes out-of-court via Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes.
Compared to going to court, Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes are cheaper, quicker and more informal offering a tailored practical solution which makes them attractive for consumers but also for businesses seeking remedy. Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes also prove suitable for multi-party disputes. They are a good alternative to mass court litigations of the US style (class actions), which are often very complex, lengthy and costly. Moreover, online shopping is increasing and judicial actions face limitations when dealing with the challenges of the fast-changing internet world. Here, Alternative Dispute Resolution could play an even more relevant role.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution is a valid contribution to the ultimate goal: a healthy and more competitive Single Market. It can stimulate confidence of consumers vis-à-vis businesses so that they offer goods and services of even higher quality. The consumers will have then no or less grounds for claims, and, if so, these claims can be dealt with in an efficient, low-cost and timely manner.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes have not yet reached their full potential. Efforts should be devoted to their further promotion and improvements, in particular the extension of sector-specific and geographical coverage. The EPP Group fully supports the promotion of out-of-court settlement mechanisms that comply with the principles of impartiality, transparency, effectiveness and fairness. Accordingly, the EPP Group considers the recent EU legislative proposal on Alternative Dispute Resolution for consumer disputes, the proposal on Online Dispute Resolution for consumer disputes and the expected proposal on Alternative Dispute Resolution for businesses as its key priorities.
Last update: 06.02.2012
The Alternative Dispute Resolution is a valid contribution to the ultimate goal: a healthy and more competitive Single Market. It can stimulate confidence of consumers vis-à-vis businesses so that they offer goods and services of even higher quality. The consumers will have then no or less grounds for claims, and, if so, these claims can be dealt with in an efficient, low-cost and timely manner.
The Alternative Dispute Resolution schemes have not yet reached their full potential. Efforts should be devoted to their further promotion and improvements, in particular the extension of sector-specific and geographical coverage. The EPP Group fully supports the promotion of out-of-court settlement mechanisms that comply with the principles of impartiality, transparency, effectiveness and fairness. Accordingly, the EPP Group considers the recent EU legislative proposal on Alternative Dispute Resolution for consumer disputes, the proposal on Online Dispute Resolution for consumer disputes and the expected proposal on Alternative Dispute Resolution for businesses as its key priorities.
Last update: 06.02.2012
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual Property is generated through intellectual or creative activity. Same as with "tangible" property, the owner has to gain certain rights to protect his intellectual property: he has to be able to decide for a specific and limited time how to lease, license or sell his creations. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) fall into two categories: industrial property (e.g. patents, inventions, trademarks, designs) and copyright (literary and artistic works such as books, films, musical works, performances or paintings).
There are currently approximately 1.4 million European enterprises (e.g. publishing houses, music labels, film production companies) working in the copyright-based creative industries. Those creative industries account for around 3.0% of employment, contribute around 3.3 % to EU GDP and account for 1.4 million Small and Medium Enterprises, representing 8.5 million jobs. Employment in IP-based or 'knowledge-economy' industries increased by 24% between 1996 and 2006 compared to 6% for other industries. As creative industries are one of the most dynamic sectors in Europe, they hold huge potential for growth and jobs. A reliable legal framework for IPR is of utmost importance for the companies and right holders' business strategies and their competitiveness at a European and global level. The still existing obstacles in the single market concerning this sector need to be dealt with in order to enable further growth of European businesses and to boost innovation.
Intellectual Property is generated through intellectual or creative activity. Same as with "tangible" property, the owner has to gain certain rights to protect his intellectual property: he has to be able to decide for a specific and limited time how to lease, license or sell his creations. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) fall into two categories: industrial property (e.g. patents, inventions, trademarks, designs) and copyright (literary and artistic works such as books, films, musical works, performances or paintings).
There are currently approximately 1.4 million European enterprises (e.g. publishing houses, music labels, film production companies) working in the copyright-based creative industries. Those creative industries account for around 3.0% of employment, contribute around 3.3 % to EU GDP and account for 1.4 million Small and Medium Enterprises, representing 8.5 million jobs. Employment in IP-based or 'knowledge-economy' industries increased by 24% between 1996 and 2006 compared to 6% for other industries. As creative industries are one of the most dynamic sectors in Europe, they hold huge potential for growth and jobs. A reliable legal framework for IPR is of utmost importance for the companies and right holders' business strategies and their competitiveness at a European and global level. The still existing obstacles in the single market concerning this sector need to be dealt with in order to enable further growth of European businesses and to boost innovation.
Towards a unitary patent protection:
There is still no unified European patent. The 'European' patent currently issued by the European Patent office is a bundle of national patents which needs to be validated in every Member State where protection is sought and has to be enforced separately in every Member State. This makes the process of obtaining patent protection very complex and cost intensive. The EPP Group has for a long time been advocating a unified European patent system. Therefore we welcome the efforts to establish unified patent protection and a specialized Unitary Patent Court to minimize litigation costs and obtain more legal clarity and certainty. The package of proposals establishing the unitary patent protection system is in its final phase and the participating Member States commit to reaching, at the latest in June 2012, a final agreement on the last outstanding issues in the patent package.
Collecting Societies:
Authors have to be able to live from their work. Therefore, authors of literary or artistic works as well as related rights enjoy exclusive rights to authorize or prohibit the use of their works. Collecting societies license their rights and collect and distribute their royalty. Due to the fragmentation of repertoires, there are a lot of complexities in today's music market. Online music services and broadcasters need to approach many different collecting societies in order to get licenses for different repertoires. At the moment, the most attractive repertoires are concentrated in the hands of few large collecting societies. As the market share for online music is becoming a bigger part of music producers' and composers' income, access to the online market for local European music repertoire is of growing concern. The EPP Group supports the Commission in its effort to create common rules for collecting societies all over Europe to create more balance between the rights holders, commercial users and collecting societies. As Europe's cultural diversity needs to be protected and stimulated, a clear legal framework for the multi-territorial licensing of online music is, in our view, necessary to encourage new business models and to provide better services for European customers. The EPP Group has been calling on the Commission to present a proposal on Collection Societies for a long time, which should be delivered by the end of the year.
Orphan Works:
Orphan works are works that are still copyright protected but whose authors are unknown or not located. As a consequence, the authors cannot be contacted in order to give their permission to libraries and archives to digitise their works and make them available online. The lack of a European legal framework on Orphan Works hinders the creation of online libraries, such as the "Europeana" project. The EPP Group therefore welcomes the Commission's proposal for a directive addressing this important issue. We think that extensive online libraries are important to enable citizen's access to cultural and literary works. We are fighting for the balance between full protection of the lawful copyright holder and the facilitation of cross-border digitization, preservation and the online accessibility of cultural content. The Legal Affairs Committee is currently working on a report on this issue.
Enforcement:
The EPP Group calls on the Commission to come forward with a timely revision of the IPR enforcement directive tackling new problems arising from the mounting relevance of the internet. The spread of counterfeiting and piracy costs many jobs in today's Europe and can even, e.g. in the case of counterfeited medicines, have deadly results. European industry estimates that around €10 billion and more than 185 000 jobs were lost due to piracy in the EU in 2008. The goal of the revision of the Enforcement Directive should be to protect copyright, to fight online piracy and counterfeiting but to also ensure that the legitimate interest of consumers is protected. In this respect, we call for an adequate definition of piracy, making sure it's neither too broad nor too narrow in order not to put unnecessary restrictions on users.
Trademarks & Brands:
A trademark is e.g. a symbol, a logo, a name or a design which a creator uses to identify his work and to distinguish it from his competitors. In 1996, the Office of Harmonisation of Internal Market (OHIM) was created by the European Commission to register the Community trademarks. An attractive fee - around 1000 Euros - has contributed to the success of European trademarks with 1 million registrations foreseen for 2011. Despite these positive results, the EPP Group considers that the increasing brand infringements over the internet require an action to strengthen the confidence of the consumers and the companies which operate online and to fight against counterfeiting. That is why the EPP Group has fully supported the proposal of the Commission to entrust the OHIM with certain tasks related to the management of the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy which will enter into force in the following months.
The European Commission will present probably in spring a review of the current regulatory framework to ease and speed-up the registration and for a better harmonization of the protection at national level.
Last update: 06.02.2012
There is still no unified European patent. The 'European' patent currently issued by the European Patent office is a bundle of national patents which needs to be validated in every Member State where protection is sought and has to be enforced separately in every Member State. This makes the process of obtaining patent protection very complex and cost intensive. The EPP Group has for a long time been advocating a unified European patent system. Therefore we welcome the efforts to establish unified patent protection and a specialized Unitary Patent Court to minimize litigation costs and obtain more legal clarity and certainty. The package of proposals establishing the unitary patent protection system is in its final phase and the participating Member States commit to reaching, at the latest in June 2012, a final agreement on the last outstanding issues in the patent package.
Collecting Societies:
Authors have to be able to live from their work. Therefore, authors of literary or artistic works as well as related rights enjoy exclusive rights to authorize or prohibit the use of their works. Collecting societies license their rights and collect and distribute their royalty. Due to the fragmentation of repertoires, there are a lot of complexities in today's music market. Online music services and broadcasters need to approach many different collecting societies in order to get licenses for different repertoires. At the moment, the most attractive repertoires are concentrated in the hands of few large collecting societies. As the market share for online music is becoming a bigger part of music producers' and composers' income, access to the online market for local European music repertoire is of growing concern. The EPP Group supports the Commission in its effort to create common rules for collecting societies all over Europe to create more balance between the rights holders, commercial users and collecting societies. As Europe's cultural diversity needs to be protected and stimulated, a clear legal framework for the multi-territorial licensing of online music is, in our view, necessary to encourage new business models and to provide better services for European customers. The EPP Group has been calling on the Commission to present a proposal on Collection Societies for a long time, which should be delivered by the end of the year.
Orphan Works:
Orphan works are works that are still copyright protected but whose authors are unknown or not located. As a consequence, the authors cannot be contacted in order to give their permission to libraries and archives to digitise their works and make them available online. The lack of a European legal framework on Orphan Works hinders the creation of online libraries, such as the "Europeana" project. The EPP Group therefore welcomes the Commission's proposal for a directive addressing this important issue. We think that extensive online libraries are important to enable citizen's access to cultural and literary works. We are fighting for the balance between full protection of the lawful copyright holder and the facilitation of cross-border digitization, preservation and the online accessibility of cultural content. The Legal Affairs Committee is currently working on a report on this issue.
Enforcement:
The EPP Group calls on the Commission to come forward with a timely revision of the IPR enforcement directive tackling new problems arising from the mounting relevance of the internet. The spread of counterfeiting and piracy costs many jobs in today's Europe and can even, e.g. in the case of counterfeited medicines, have deadly results. European industry estimates that around €10 billion and more than 185 000 jobs were lost due to piracy in the EU in 2008. The goal of the revision of the Enforcement Directive should be to protect copyright, to fight online piracy and counterfeiting but to also ensure that the legitimate interest of consumers is protected. In this respect, we call for an adequate definition of piracy, making sure it's neither too broad nor too narrow in order not to put unnecessary restrictions on users.
Trademarks & Brands:
A trademark is e.g. a symbol, a logo, a name or a design which a creator uses to identify his work and to distinguish it from his competitors. In 1996, the Office of Harmonisation of Internal Market (OHIM) was created by the European Commission to register the Community trademarks. An attractive fee - around 1000 Euros - has contributed to the success of European trademarks with 1 million registrations foreseen for 2011. Despite these positive results, the EPP Group considers that the increasing brand infringements over the internet require an action to strengthen the confidence of the consumers and the companies which operate online and to fight against counterfeiting. That is why the EPP Group has fully supported the proposal of the Commission to entrust the OHIM with certain tasks related to the management of the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy which will enter into force in the following months.
The European Commission will present probably in spring a review of the current regulatory framework to ease and speed-up the registration and for a better harmonization of the protection at national level.
Last update: 06.02.2012
WHO'S WHO
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Klaus-Heiner Lehne MEP, Chairman phone: +32 2 28 45047 (Brussels) phone: +33 3 88 1 75047 (Strasbourg) e-mail: klaus-heiner.lehne@europarl.europa.eu |
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Raffaele Baldassarre MEP, Vice-Chairman phone: +32 2 28 45114 (Brussels) phone: +33 3 88 1 75114 (Strasbourg) e-mail: raffaele.baldassarre@europarl.europa.eu |
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Sebastian Valentin Bodu MEP, Vice-Chairman phone: +32 2 28 45634 (Brussels) phone: +33 3 88 1 75634 (Strasbourg) e-mail: sebastianvalentin.bodu@europarl.europa.eu |
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Tadeusz Zwiefka MEP, Coordinator phone: +32 2 28 45258 (Brussels) phone: +33 3 88 1 75258 (Strasbourg) e-mail: tadeusz.zwiefka@europarl.europa.eu |
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Marielle Gallo MEP, Vice-Coordinator phone: +32 2 28 45181 (Brussels) phone: +33 3 88 1 75181 (Strasbourg) e-mail: marielle.gallo@europarl.europa.eu |
More contacts...  |
