Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-20-Speech-3-159"
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"en.20000920.13.3-159"2
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"I would like to join my colleagues in thanking Mrs Wallis for her tremendous effort and work on this very difficult brief and I also want to support the call by my colleague, Pat the Cope Gallagher, and my other Irish colleague, Nuala Ahern, with regard to the establishment of a centralised European Union Electronic Database on case-law, put forward by Twinkle Egan, a barrister from Ireland.
However, when we look at the difficulties which have arisen with regard to this report, when we look at the disparate views – the so-called purists on behalf of the consumers or the other so-called purists on behalf of business and e-commerce – we sometimes forget that a lot of small- and medium-sized enterprises are consumers themselves, who will be trading with larger companies or larger suppliers and who deserve the same protection that I, “as an individual” or anybody else, as an individual consumer, would have.
Therefore, what is most of all required within the new framework is certainty with regard to the protection available and the responsibilities of the people who are trading on-line.
I look to other legislation to see what analogies or what benefits can be drawn from it. Under the various insurance directives, for instance, non-national insurance companies are required to have an agent in each Member State to deal with insurance claims that may occur in that Member State. Why not put in place a similar requirement on on-line trading companies?
Likewise, under the consumer credit directive, the provider of the service is required to inform the consumer of certain rights, certain entitlements, certain get-out clauses as well. It is not difficult to transpose that kind of ideology into a direct consumer-service-provider relationship also.
That is why, more than anything else today, we need to put this regulation in place. We do not need to defer it any longer. We do not need to put any more mud into the water. We need to enable Europe, which is lagging behind in e-commerce and Internet business worldwide, to put in place new arrangements with regard to creation of on-line business and the protection of consumer rights and also to ensure that Europe takes its rightful place at the top of the world trading system of Internet and on-line businesses.
That is why it is important that we should support the general opinion, agreed by the Legal Affairs Committee and as proposed by Mrs Wallis, concerning those areas over which there has been some conflict, I take note of what Commissioner Byrne said recently in his speech about the other opportunities. No consumer, “as an individual” or as a company, can be denied the ultimate right to take legal action but that does not mean that this should be the first course of action. There should be an agreed dispute-resolution mechanism available at local level, which can reduce the cost of settling consumer disputes because, as has been pointed out by many speakers this evening, there is the question of added costs with regard to resolution of disputes.
Finally, I would once again like to thank the rapporteur and the Commission representatives for their work and remind all Members that there is another way under the Brussels I Convention and we can put other mechanisms in place. Let us agree on this report and then make changes in other areas as they come before us."@en1
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