TWO NEW DIRECTIVES on e-commerce and distance selling of financial services were scheduled to be debated in the European Parliament earlier this month.
Alastair Tempest, director general of public affairs and self-regulation for the Federation of European Direct Marketing, said the directives are “not desperately bad.” But there are provisions FEDMA would seek to change.
For example, the Internet directive is complex, especially in regard to liability for Web sites, he noted.
The greatest worry, according to Tempest, is that debate on the directives will be put off for a long time because a new European Parliament will be elected in June, and won’t really start working until September.
Scandal’s Impact Tempest-speaking at the FEDMA conference in Strasbourg, France just down the road from where the parliament meets-also commented on how the recent scandal in the European Commission has affected FEDMA’s lobbying. (All commission members were slated to step down at press time.) The group was expecting a new directive on postal services, which would start the liberalization of direct mail, but that is on hold now because the commission can make no decisions.
FEDMA had lobbied for grants for education and e-commerce initiatives, which seem unlikely to come about any time soon given that the scandal was over the abuse of bestowing grants. Officials are afraid to give any now.
This is especially unfortunate in respect to e-commerce, Tempest said, because FEDMA wants to promote a Europe-wide system of using a “seal of approval” for Web sites, before each country does its own and a myriad of seals results.
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