Spain

[ES] Bill on E-Commerce

IRIS 2002-4:1/19

Alberto Pérez Gómez

Entidad publica empresarial RED.ES

In February 2002, the Spanish Government presented a Bill on Information Society Services and E-Commerce. The main goal of this Bill is to implement into Spanish Law EC Directive 2000/31 ("Directive on electronic commerce"). This Bill includes definitions of Information Society Services and of the place of establishment of operators. It also deals with transparency obligations for operators; transparency requirements for commercial communications; the conclusion and validity of electronic contracts; liability of Internet intermediaries ("caching", "hosting"); on-line dispute settlement and the role of national authorities.

The presentation of the Bill was preceded by an open consultation, which allowed interested parties to submit their views. Some of the amendments that they proposed have been incorporated by the Government into the final version of the Bill. The two issues which still stir up the most controversy are the regulation of unsolicited commercial communications and the role that the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Ministry of Science and Technology) would play in the enforcement of these provisions.