Digital Single Market Strategy Research Articles

Barriers to Online Shopping

The EU's Digital Single Market Strategy relies on policies to increase opportunities and uniform rules for a seamless and guaranteed through transparent and equal conditions for all market participants for the free exchange of products and the movement of goods, people, services, capital and data. This is applicable regardless of whether the product exchange takes place in a real (physical) or digital environment. The migration to online sales is fraught with problems and barriers. Their study and understanding the genesis of their possible origin allows formulating alternative solutions for their possible overcoming. The paper reviews the data systematized by Eurostat by individual member states for reasons why individuals do not shop on the Internet and analyzes various dimensions of their manifestation and a possible solution.

ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ РОЗВИТКУ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ ІНТЕРНЕТ-МАГАЗИНІВ НА ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОМУ РИНКУ

The main problems of e-commerce and the drivers of its prospective development at the current stage of the Ukrainian economy are identified. An analysis of scientific literature and relevant publications related to e-business in Ukraine was carried out. It is shown that in modern conditions, the main reference point for the formation and implementation of integration processes in the digital economy of Ukraine is the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. A research of modern trends in the development of e-commerce in Ukraine in modern conditions was carried out. The potential for Ukrainian business development and its promotion abroad was determined. The advantages of the European e-commerce market for the Ukrainian entrepreneur in the context of Ukraine's integration into the Digital Single Market are revealed. Trends in the development of e-commerce in Ukraine during the war were studied. The main problems and difficulties of exporting Ukrainian goods abroad were identified. The peculiarities of the entry of Ukrainian Internet stores into European markets are analyzed. Practical cases of successful Ukrainian online stores, which today operate on European markets, in particular, Poland, Romania, and Moldova, have been studied. The main problems and prospects for the further promotion of Ukrainian Internet business on European markets are revealed. The main factors affecting the success of Ukrainian online stores entering foreign markets have been determined, in particular, adaptation of the web-site for the local consumer, transparency of pricing, convenience of placing an order, paying for goods on the web-site, and convenient delivery. The directions for the introduction of the innovative technologies and marketing digital tools, which contribute to the growth of business competitiveness and consumer loyalty, are substantiated. It is shown that Ukrainian Internet stores should not only be adapted to European legal norms of doing business when entering international markets, but also use Internet marketing and demonstrate their competitive advantages. It has been proven that the entry of Ukrainian enterprises into foreign markets requires effective measures to analyze the market and target audience, take into account regional specifics, implement technological innovations, and also use Internet marketing tools.

O Comércio Eletrónico na União Europeia e o Novo Regime do IVA

Although there is no Value Added Tax within the European Union, national tax regimes pose problems for cross-border transactions, namely in terms of multiple taxation on the same product or service and different national rates on the same tax factor which claimed for a definite solution. The growth of e-commerce and its international potential imposed an increased sense of importance to this movement. The new cross-border VAT regime, part of the European Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy, in which the EU intends to modernize and simplify the VAT system for online sales of goods, seeks to address these problems and strengthen the European Union’s internal market through innovative mechanisms, such as the VAT Single Desk. This article seeks to understand these movements of legislative innovation, evaluating their broad impact on the national legal system and the European Union.

Digitalization as a Trend of Modern Development of the World Economy

Transformation of economies with the application of information and communication technologies not only strengthens the competitiveness of countries in the international market, but also helps optimize and improve business processes in the international business environment. The purpose of the academic paper is to study the impact of digitalization on the development of the world economy on the example of the economies of the European Union member states. The following methods have been used, namely: analysis, description, generalization, induction, deduction, tabular representation, graphical representation, correlation analysis, systematization and grouping. Results: The positions of the European Union member states that are actively implementing the Digital Single Market strategy have been analyzed. It has been established that according to The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Malta have been among the top 5 leaders with the highest level of digitalization of the economy in 2020. Based on the study of The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, it has been found that the European Union member states, which are among the top 10 leading countries, such as: Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, have a high level of ability and readiness to research and implement digital technologies in order to achieve economic transformation and business transformation. The results of the correlation analysis have revealed the interrelationship between the values of Digital single market – promoting e-commerce for individuals and Enterprises that have provided training to develop / upgrade ICT skills of their personnel (%). It has been proved that Sweden, Malta and Estonia show a very high positive correlation, which indicates that these countries are actively implementing digital technologies in the development of economic processes.

Digital Single Market and the EU Competition Regime: An Explanation of Policy Change

ABSTRACT Although the EU competition regime is well-established and highly effective, EU policy actors may still need to rethink their tried and tested approach to competition regulation. This is what happened in the context of the European Commission’s planned regulation of online platforms, embodied (in part) within the Digital Markets Act. This article reviews the interplay of the EU’s competition regime with its relatively new Digital Single Market strategy to ask how a traditional ex-post approach to competition regulation came to be supplemented by a (proposed) ex-ante regulatory approach. Informed by the literature on policy change, the article examines the policy context, the Commission’s experience gained in dealing with competition cases, and the input of lobbyists, advocacy groups and experts, to explain this shift in Commission policy.

‘We are Sorry This Video Is Not Available in Your Country’: An Ethical Analysis of Geo-blocking Audio-Visual Online Content

ABSTRACT This article provides an ethical analysis of the moral conflict over access to premium audio-visual online content, which is currently regulated by geo-blocking in the domain of digital film distribution. We first identify the stakeholders of this conflict, which are the rights holders on the one hand – that is, creators, producers and distributors of audio-visual content – and the consumers of audio-visual content on the other. We also identify their interests, moral rights and moral intuitions based on interviews with representatives of the interested parties and by conducting an analysis of their position papers on the Digital Single Market strategy initiatives presented by the European Commission in the years 2015 to 2018. The moral rights and legitimate interests of stakeholders are then balanced and specified. We propose four ethical principles that set out the conditions under which the geo-blocking of audio-visual content is either ethically justified or unjustified.

“This Content is not Available in your Country” A General Summary on Geo-Blocking in and Outside the European Union

Summary The phenomenon of geo-blocking is one of the new challenges of the digital era. Geo-blocking is a modern form of discrimination that differentiates between consumers on the basis of their geographical location. The phenomenon ultimately affects the situation of the citizen concerned and may also constitute an obstacle to the single market. Digital time has put a number of issues to be resolved on the legislator’s table in recent years, one of which is the phenomenon of geo-blocking. Already in 2015, the European Commission led by Juncker (2014–2019) adopted the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, which marked the European Union’s (EU) path towards innovation by creating a new digital dimension of the Single Market. In order to achieve the DSM strategy and the digital objectives, a number of legislative acts have been put in place to address the elements of the DSM and exploit the benefits of technological modernisation. The geo-blocking phenomenon is presented in this study, partly in terms of practical aspects and partly with regard to the geo-blocking regulation. The Ursula von der Leyen-led Commission (2019–2024) identifies “a Europe fit for the digital age” among its six priorities. Among the priorities, the “promotion of a European way of life”, must be linked to the digital priorities, as our smart tools and our digital presence are becoming an integral part of our lives – and our common way of life – especially at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovation has also been accelerated by the current exceptional situation, the health emergency caused by COVID-19, forcing us to work remotely, remote contacts and the constant use of our smart tools. The realisation of digital well-being is therefore also an integral part of our lifestyle. In the intersection of digitalisation and development and the promotion of a common European way of life, we can find a single market in which we can experience a significant aspect of our European way of life – the free movements and cross-border transactions – even through our online presence. The internal market is the dimension for the proper functioning of which the Union institutions can adopt a legislative act. In addition, measures taken to remove barriers and remove obstacles are essential for the functioning of the internal market. Joint action against geo-blocking as an internal market barrier will also play a role in creating digital prosperity by promoting the proper functioning of the internal market by promoting e-commerce and electronic content access. The aim of the study on the one hand is to present issues related to geo-blocking in a brief and descriptive manner from the perspective of the social, economic and legal environment linked to the internal market. On the other hand, the study briefly presents the legal environment of geo-blocking in the USA, Russia, China and Japan.

The Digital Transformation of the EU Market The Digital Single Market Strategy in the Context of E-Commerce Development Diversification in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia

Purpose: The paper aims to assess differences and similarities between e-commerce development in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia in the context of the EU’s Digital Single Market strategy. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on synthetic considerations related to the digital transformation and development of the EU digital economy. The DSM strategy identifies the barriers to e-commerce market development in the European space and sets directions for legal changes, creating favorable conditions for building a strong e-economy including e-commerce and a modern digital society in all EU member states. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical part of the paper presents differences in e-commerce development in three countries: Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. The research was based on the analysis of the literature and secondary sources. The former allowed for the identification of the consequences of the DSM strategy for the development of e-commerce in the EU member states, the latter allowed for a comparative assessment of e-commerce development in the three surveyed countries. The adopted research method allowed for the assessment of the size, structure and dynamics of the development of the e-commerce market in the three countries covered by the research. Findings: The presented analysis describes the status, conditions and development trends in e-commerce in Czechia, Poland and Slovakia. The three analyzed countries are – to a large degree – uniform in terms of cultural, historical and economic aspects. The development of e-commerce in these countries is similar, but it is also characterized by considerable differences. The similarities refer to the level of informatization, the socioeconomic characteristics of users and e-consumers, development projections until 2023, and the social acceptance of online shopping. Simultaneously, the analyzed countries have diversified industry structures of online markets, they differ in the values of ARPU indices and record considerably lower values of online shopping per capita as compared with average EU standards. Limitations in developing transborder trade are due to similar factors as in other EU member states. Research limitations/implications: The article, by its nature, has its limitations. They result from the concentration of considerations on the formal side of DSM – assessment of the DSM project architecture, its priorities and identification of opportunities and conditions of its implementation in each member country. The problem of diversifying e-commerce development in three countries is general and limited in the space of analysis. The limitations apply to the use of one research method, which is nonetheless important and adequate to the problem. When designing future research, we indicate the need to use methodological triangulation. An important and interesting direction of future research will be detailed studies of e-consumers, e-commerce strategies of enterprises and the extension of research to other countries, to the international environment. Originality/value: The presented comparative analysis is significant from the perspective of its cognitive value. It combines an approach of management sciences with the macro- and microeconomic perspective. The former represents a platform of corporate functioning and its development in the environment of networks, new business models and new consumer characteristics, behaviors and assessments of companies’ marketing offerings. The other perspective is expressed by a new macro- and microeconomic environment, the character of regulation, transborder online competitive mechanisms, continuous processes of digital transformation and e-economy development. The results of the research can lead to further research of corporate management and transborder strategies in the environment of the digital transformation and creation of the digital single market across Europe.

THE IMPACT OF CYBER THREATS ON THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM ON THE EXAMPLE OF EU COUNTRIES

Exponential growth in the number of cyber frauds in the financial sector and their intellectualization leads to large-scale negative consequences of both financial (loss of funds by financial institutions and their customers, the bankruptcy of financial institutions, lack of tax revenues) and public (theft of personal data of consumers of financial services, reduction the level of business reputation of financial institutions, loss of public confidence in the security and reliability of financial transactions). The study used methods of systematization, comparison, structural analysis, logical generalization, bibliometric analysis (using VOSviewer 1.6.15) and methods of vertical, horizontal, financial, and trend analysis of the data set to assess the dynamics and trends of cybercrime in the financial system of the European Union. To determine the most relevant publications on this issue, the authors conducted a bibliometric analysis of scientific papers indexed by the Scopus database from 2015 to 2021. According to the study results, the expediency of separating 6 clusters by the results of scientific research, the authors of which are represented from 34 countries. The article analyzes the dynamics and trends of cybercrime in the financial sector of the European Union. Cybersecurity measures are summarized in terms of state security agencies, financial monitoring services, the Directorate General of Informatics. Cybersecurity features high on the list of the priorities of the European Commission: trust and security are at the core of the Digital Single Market Strategy, while the fight against cybercrime is one of the three pillars of the European Agenda on Security. The authors of the article emphasize that the development of digital technologies leads to an increase in the scale of cyber threats, which require prompt and timely detection, assessment, and development of appropriate measures to prevent them or minimize the possible consequences. The practical value of the study lies in the use of state regulation, supervision, and control in the development of a system of counteraction to information risks that threaten the public interest.

Online Platform Service Providers on Platform 9¾: A Call for an Update of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive

This article argues for an update of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive of 1993 in light of the Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy of 2015. The Directive in its current setup tolerates a certain amount of differences in the unfairness assessment based on national law due to its minimum harmonization approach and the mechanism of decentralized enforcement by national courts according to national law, designed by the CJEU. A comparative unfairness assessment of contract terms of five popular online platform service providers according to the national laws of Germany, the UK and France reveals just how different the result really is. The differences in national unfairness assessment according to the laws of the Member States go beyond the amount of differences justified by the Directive viewed from the perspective of the Commission’s legislative strategy. This inconsistency can be resolved by an update of the Unfair Contract Terms Directive. A modernization and the adoption of a maximum harmonization approach seem the most adequate considering the Digital Single Market Strategy. Right now, the Directive is stuck on the symbolic platform 9¾ – in between platform 9, the offline world for which it was created, and platform 10, the digital market. Online Platform Service Providers, Unfair Contract Terms, Digital SingleOnline Platform Service Providers, Unfair Contract Terms, Digital Single Market, Liability Clauses

Why a Reform of Hosting Providerss Safe Harbour is Unnecessary Under EU Copyright Law

In the context of its Digital Single Market Strategy (DSMS) the EU Commission is currently engaged in a discussion of whether the liability principles and rules envisaged by Directive 2000/31 (the Ecommerce Directive) should be amended. One of the principal concerns in relation to unlicensed online intermediaries (notably unlicensed hosting providers) is that these have been increasingly said to invoke the safe harbour immunities in the Ecommerce Directive lacking the conditions for their application. This alleged abuse has led to a distortion of the online marketplace and the resulting ‘value gap’ indicated by some rightholders. This contribution discusses a recent proposal advanced in France which asks to remove the safe harbour protection pursuant to Article 14 of the Ecommerce Directive for hosting providers that give access to copyright works. After addressing some of the points raised by the French proposal, this work concludes that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has not erred in its interpretation of relevant provisions of the Ecommerce Directive and that – in practice – the removal of safe harbour protection for passive hosting providers that give access to copyright works would not provide any distinct advantages to rightholders. Overall, the current framework already provides an adequate degree of protection: what is required is a rigorous application by national courts of the principles enshrined in the Ecommerce Directive, as interpreted by the CJEU.

Geo-Blocking of Online Audiovisual Content Services

Geo-blocking, which basically refers to the practice of preventing customers from accessing websites or content of the website, has become widespread in the European Union. More particularly, the most affected sector by it is the audiovisual sector. Against this background, EU consumers have not been sitting idly by. They have expressed their dissatisfaction with geoblocking by contending that it erects virtual barriers where there should be none. Others have eased their frustrations by falling back on VPNs to circumvent these obstacles. By contrast, the stakeholders of the audiovisual industry – especially European players in the audiovisual market – have intensively lobbied against a geo-blocking ban. Their main argument is that artificially partitioning the Internet landscape through geo-blocking is indispensable to preserve the principle of copyright territoriality upon which their current business model is founded. Elimination of geo-blocking would adversely affect content production and subsequently decrease consumer’s welfare. Hence, the redline of this Master’s thesis is this war of words on the geo-blocking issue. Put it differently, it investigates how cross-border access to online audiovisual content services could be secured without harming the incentives of the audiovisual industry to produce and distribute content. To answer this question, this research has been conducted as following. Firstly, it outlined the inadequacy of the legal framework prior to the adoption of the 2015 Digital Single Market Strategy to deal with the issue. Indeed, the legal framework does little to nothing to address geo-blocking per se and/or to tackle the underlying reasons for the use of it. Secondly, it observed that the Geo-blocking Regulation which entered into force in 2018 does not alter the status quo since audiovisual services are expressly left outside the scope of it. Lastly, out of the presumption that the traditional copyright-territorialitybased business model of the audiovisual industry will inevitably have to adapt to the new paradigm in the way audiovisual content is consumed and distributed, this Master’s thesis answers the research question by advocating for a threefold approach towards the geo-blocking issue. In other words, this contribution defends that an elimination of geo-blocking in the EU (and thus allowing cross-border access to online audiovisual content services) without harming the incentives of the audiovisual industry to produce and distribute content will only be feasible if the European Union adopts an incremental, cross-sectoral and proactive approach.

Novi pravci u elektronskoj pravnoj regulativi Evropske unije posle 2015 - pravna regulativa remetilačke inovacije

This paper explores the gradual change of direction in the European digital policy on the content layer that took place after the introduction of the 2015 Digital Single Market Strategy. It argues that, while the main objectives of the pre2015 policy have been the promotion and facilitation of the free movement of digital services through liberalisation, the post-2015 digital strategy changes direction to the defence against real and imagined threats and downplays the liberalising credo it was originally based on. The first part outlines the objectives of the EU digital policy pre-2015 and argues that low-key regulatory intervention in information society services and robust intermediary liability regime are its cornerstones. The second part explores the main regulatory methods post-2015: the emergence of platforms, new types of rules and new regulatory principles. The final section gives a critical overview and explains why the current approach is inadequate for the future.

EU Cybersecurity in the Context of Increasing Cyberthreats in the Modern Globalized World

The article is an attempt to analyze the EU’s ever-increasing cybersecurity challenges in today’s globally digitalized world. The researcher remarks that since 2013 the European Union has been pursuing the policy of developing awareness of cyber-attacks targeting and beefing-up restrictive measures. The author underlines that the European Council has adopted the regulation known as the Cybersecurity Act to become more cyber-proof. This is evidenced by a number of studies carried out within the EU as well as that this legal regulation facilitated imposing targeted restrictive measures to deter and respond to cyber-attacks in EU and abroad. Furthermore, the EU cybersecurity market is one of the fastest growing in the ICT sector, providing huge economic opportunities. Underpinning the cybersecurity industry will enable European companies to take advantage of these opportunities and increase citizens and businesses’ confidence in the digital world, while significantly contributing to the goals of the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. Broadly speaking, the problem can be addressed by such strategic priorities for enhancing EU cybersecurity as followed: achieving cyber resilience; dramatically reducing cybercrime; elaborating the common cybersecurity and defence policy; developing industrial and technological resources to ensure cybersecurity; establishing coordination mechanisms to prevent, detect, mitigate and respond to cyber bullying and information security as well as improving engagement with the private sector to enhance cybersecurity. The ultimate goal of the above-mentioned EU strategy appeared to be a Public Private Partnership (cPPP) that was concluded on 5 July, 2016 between the European Commission and the European Cyber Security Organization (ECSO). The objective of such partnership is to ensure awareness and resilience in an increasingly multifaceted cyber threat environment and to foster collaboration between public and private actors in the early stages of the research and innovation process to enable the EU Internet users to access secured innovative and credible European solutions (ICT products, services and software).

Regulacja prawna platform internetowych

Celem artykułu jest analiza i ocena inicjatyw podejmowanych na poziomie Unii Europejskiej, w celu odpowiedniego uregulowania platform internetowych. Punktem wyjścia dla przeprowadzonych badań jest opublikowana przez Komisję Europejską w 2015 r. „Strategia jednolitego rynku cyfrowego dla Europy”. W artykule podjęto rozważania na temat roli platform internetowych we współczesnej gospodarce cyfrowej, przedstawiono ich charakterystyczne cechy oraz związane z nimi szanse i zagrożenia. Następnie analizie zostały poddane dwa zagadnienia o kluczowym, zdaniem autorki, znaczeniu z punktu widzenia prawodawcy: ochrona i uprzedmiotowienie danych osobowych oraz alokacja ryzyka i odpowiedzialności. W toku analizy uwzględniono m.in. przepisy rozporządzenia 2016/679 o ochronie danych osobowych, dyrektywy 2019/770 w sprawie niektórych aspektów umów o dostarczanie treści cyfrowych i usług cyfrowych oraz rozporządzenia 2019/1150 w sprawie propagowania sprawiedliwości i przejrzystości dla użytkowników biznesowych korzystających z usług pośrednictwa internetowego. Analizie poddano ponadto instrumenty o charakterze soft law, takie jak komunikaty Komisji Europejskiej o platformach internetowych, o platformach współpracy oraz o zwalczaniu nielegalnych treści w Internecie. W ocenie autorki, wyznaczony przez powyższe akty kierunek działań zasługuje na aprobatę, o sukcesie projektu decydować będzie jednak skuteczność kolejnych kroków implementacyjnych. Niezbędne są również dalsze badania naukowe dotyczące takich kwestii, jak relacje prawa umów i prawa ochrony danych osobowych oraz możliwości skutecznego zaangażowania platform internetowych w celu minimalizowania zagrożeń związanych z ich rozwojem.

Consumer Law, Enforcement and the New Deal for Consumers

A key trend for consumer law and policy in Europe has been the progressive expansion of consumer rights. It has long been recognized that the vindication of consumer rights is challenging. The expansion of consumer rights from the 1960s was accompanied by the establishment of proactive regulatory agencies whose enforcement powers complement and to some degree displace mechanisms of individual consumer enforcement. In April 2018 the European Commission proposed extensive reforms of consumer law and policy in its New Deal for Consumers, a key component of which is a further significant shift away from judicial enforcement. This trend is balanced by new proposals to enhance opportunities for collective consumer redress. In this article I offer an assessment of where we are today with the varied mechanisms and trends for enforcement of consumer law and where we are heading, not simply with the New Deal for Consumers, but also with related policies such as the Digital Single Market Strategy. Overall the pattern suggests a number of key trends including: a shift from reactive to more proactive modes of enforcement; from individuated to more collective modes; more evidence of meta-regulatory approaches, and; greater cooperation in enforcement (both public private and transnational). These trends are not necessarily consistent as between each other, generating potential for tensions between approaches and underlying assumptions about both purposes and effectiveness in consumer law and policy. Consumer Law, Enforcement, European Union

A General Summary on Geo-Blocking in the EU

Summary Geo-blocking is the new phenomenon of the current digital era, which affects our everyday lives. Geo-blocking is a modern form of discrimination which is considered a geographically based restriction for consumers that may be a ban for free movements and therefore affect the single market of the European Union, too. The European Commission adopted the Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy in 2015 by which a new path forward to innovation was taken down. The new EU Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen aims not only the continuation of the development of the DSM to improve our digital welfare, but introduced the concept of the promotion of European way of life which is strongly interlinked with the digital aspects, too. As the human perspectives of our lifestyles came up to a higher level of policymaking, digital readiness, skills, and geo-discrimination might also be part of current debates. The research intends to present the geo-blocking as a new issue for the society, politics and economy, then broadly summarizes its definitions and the latest solutions for the treatment of unjustified restrictions in the EU.

THE EFFECTS OF BROADCASTING DIGITIZATION ON EU COMPETITION LAW: A TALE OF EU COPYRIGHT POLICIES

ABSTRACT In recent years, buzz terms such as “geo-blocking”, “online content portability”, and “digital copyright” have been making rounds in EU policy circles. This is largely attributed to the “Digital Single Market Strategy”, an ambitious reform the objective of which is to ensure seamless cross-border access to online services. Pursuit of this objective appears to be largely driven by the assumption that limiting the exclusivity of copyright would stimulate intra-Union competition in content markets. Against the background of EU competence limitations in the field of copyright and the increasing popularity of global U.S. firms in European audiovisual markets, this paper argues that EU Competition Law has vainly been instrumentalized to complete a single market for content. More particularly, based on legal and policy developments, which appear to challenge widespread licensing practices, sector-specific economics, and the case law that sets the conditions under which competition enforcement may introduce limits to copyright protection, this study develops the following twofold argument: in an attempt to create a single market for copyright-protected broadcast content, the EU has stretched the boundaries of competition law in an excessive manner and such unjustified interference with copyright is simply inadequate to promote competition and market integration.

Harmonising Private Law in Cyberspace: The New Directives in the Digital Single Market Context

This article is an overview of the latest developments in EU private law in the Digital Single Market context. After several years of uncertainty, in 2019 the EU adopted directives on the sale of goods (Directive 2019/771) and distance sale of content and services (Directive 2019/7770). Both directives are an important upgrade of the present consumer protection regime as well as an addition to the significant list of instruments promised in the 2015 Digital Single Market strategy. This article has two purposes: the first is to establish that the directives are not completely novel but are a result of the tradition dating to Principles of European Contract Law (PECL), Draft Common Frame of Reference (DFCR) and Common European Sales Law (CESL). We also aim to question the basic suitability of civil law as a tool for regulating the Digital Single Market, in particular in light of the new technologies (AI, smart contracts, big data, robotics, etc.) We conclude that, while the directives are an important addition to the body of harmonized EU private law, the problems of new technology may need to be addressed separately and that, technology on occasion (e.g. smart contracts) has the capacity to fulfil the tasks used to be given to civil law.

Book Markets in Europe: Facing the Challenges of the Digital Single Market

The aim of this article is to identify the challenges created by digitalization and the Digital Single Market for book markets in Europe. The research questions are, on the one hand, related to the nature of these challenges and the impact they have on European book markets, and on the other hand, the impact of the activities of EU institutions. This leads to the hypothesis that the digitization challenges that the book markets in Europe are facing are of a technological, economic, legal, political and judicial nature. Therefore, the key research method will be an analysis of these challenges and the (re)actions (under)taken by EU institutions. The book market in Europe is characterized by diversity and fragmentation in comparison with, for example, the American market, and is losing its share in the global book market with the development of book markets in emerging markets. Over the last decade, it shrank between 2008 and 2013 and started to rise again after 2014. In contrast to the European book market, the Polish book market is gradually decreasing. The e‑book market, which developed dynamically between 2009 and 2014 (often at the expense of paper books), reached the level of about 6–7% of the entire book market in Europe. To meet the challenges of the ongoing digitization, the European Union has started to implement the Digital Single Market Strategy, which also affects the European book market through the directives and regulations adopted as part of the Strategy. European copyright law, by introducing exceptions and limitations, implemented to varying degrees in individual member states, affects the business models of European publishers. In addition, the activities of authors and publishers is influenced by the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Therefore, EU institutions, through the directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, are trying to create an appropriate legal framework for out‑of‑commerce works or confirm the right to fair compensation for publishers. A separate issue remains e‑lending, which is related to the possibility of borrowing e‑books. The development of the e‑book market was limited by different VAT rates of print and digital books, which was finally resolved by the European Parliament and the Council in 2017–2018. European institutions have an impact on the book market in Europe, where the European Commission has recently been trying to solve problems resulting from the interpretation of existing directives by the CJEU.