14. And the Future…
E-commerce and its underlying technologies are
developing so quickly, it is a dangerous game to
guess where they are going. Nevertheless, some
clear trends are apparent.
Mobile
e-commerce is a key growth area, which Europe is
just experimenting with at the time of writing.
Already it is possible to browse the web and buy
things with a mobile telephone. How this will
pan out and what the killer applications will be
are not clear now. But business and investors
are excited about the possibilities, and new
mobile e-commerce ventures are popping up every
day. More importantly, there are more mobile
telephones than PC computers in Europe. So,
there can be little doubt that in five years
time, a European browsing the net is more likely
to be doing so via a mobile device than a
computer. Indeed, this is already the case in
Japan. Clearly, when the consumer is mobile in a
Europe without frontiers, there will be some
complex regulatory issues in the areas of
applicable law, jurisdiction and VAT that will
need resolving.
Ubiquitous Internet and computing is another
growth area. This involves devices other than a
PC computer connected to the Internet. These
devices could be anything from the climate
control system of a house which can be
controlled from the owner’s mobile telephone, to
a rubbish bin that notices when certain food
containers are thrown away and reorders from the
local supermarket. More elaborately, intelligent
agents in a house’s central computer might
negotiate with various electrical generation and
supply sources to obtain the best electricity
deal for the owner. When household agents
negotiate with intelligent agents belonging to
an electrical company (or telecommunications
company or any other service), there are some
interesting liability and contractual questions
that will need to be resolved.
At the
same time, many other exciting avenues of
e-business are being explored and likely some
commonplace technologies of tomorrow have yet to
be envisioned today.
In any
event, the European Commission is preparing a
legal framework for electronic commerce that
will ensure consistent laws across the EU,
thereby facilitating trade. This should largely
be in place in the next few years. Then it will
only be a matter of ensuring that legislation
keeps up with the technological developments –
or at least doesn’t fall too far behind.
Concluding Words
This guide reflects the
current status of European legislation and is
based on the experience of available best
practice. However, legislation and business
models are rapidly changing in the world of
e-business. Up-to-date legal resources should be
consulted for new information, and legal
advisors consulted for detailed information and
interpretation.
The Commission provides a lot
of information on the Internet and, as an
umbrella information source, we recommend the
e-commerce web site:
http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ecommerce/Welcome.html
Here you can find most of the
relevant issues, with operable links to the
other services of the Commission relevant to
e-commerce.
The authors welcome feedback
on this publication to improve it in future
editions and to serve the needs of our customers
as best we can. |
ISOC
IWA
ARTT
RTS
