The European Commission Monday will propose measures to boost online trust and convenience by making electronic identification (eID) and e-signature rules more uniform across Europe, EC sources said Wednesday. The two-part plan would extend existing national eID systems for public services that require formal electronic identification across Europe, and will standardize e-signature and e-authentication rules, they told reporters at a briefing where they spoke on the condition they not be named. Competitiveness ministers Wednesday urged the EC to submit the proposal by June. Despite that, the sources said, they expect some concerns from governments worried about the potential burden of accepting eID services from other countries, and from some EU lawmakers who might be troubled by perceived privacy issues.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
There are enough problems with consumers gaining full Internet access “to warrant strong and targeted action” to safeguard users, although not necessarily more regulation, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Tuesday. She responded to a European Commission-ordered report by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) into potential net neutrality problems. Internet access works well most of the time for Europeans, but survey findings showed a need for more regulatory certainty and better consumer choice, she said. In addition to its report on traffic management practices, BEREC launched consultations on several issues in the context of net neutrality: Quality of service guidelines (http://xrl.us/bm9pti); differentiation practices and related competition issues (http://xrl.us/bm9ptk); and Internet Protocol interconnection (http://xrl.us/bm9ptp).
Claims and counter-claims about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement flew Wednesday at a lively European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee workshop on the controversial treaty. Much of the criticism of ACTA is based on very selective readings of its text, said Anders Jessen, head of unit for public procurement and intellectual property (IP) at the European Commissioner for Trade Directorate. He constantly urged foes to cite chapter and verse on where the agreement allegedly violates fundamental rights.
Protecting consumers who use mobile payment systems could be the first area in which the European Commission acts, an EC source said Wednesday. The EC is in the middle of digesting the more than 300 responses it received to a “green” (discussion) paper published in January on credit card, Internet and mobile payments, and the results of its May 4 forum on the issues, he said. It will try to find consensus by stakeholder category and to make public a synthesis of the results and the comments themselves sometime in June, the source said. The paper was the first broader statement on m-payments the EC has made, he noted. While there’s less discussion of mobile payments than of credit cards, that doesn’t mean the issues aren’t important, especially since m-payments are expected to surge in the next two years, he said. The EC plans to unveil its next steps before the end of July, he said. Because the discussion document covers a vast area and the EC can’t address all the issues, the July statement will set some priorities, he said. It remains to be seen if there will be a concrete proposal on m-payments, but what could be of early importance is ensuring that new payment methods fit within EU consumer protection rules, he said. Legislation or non-legislative proposals on m-payments and the other systems discussed in the paper could be adopted next year, he said. The EC considers three aspects of mobile payments key, he said: (1) Whatever systems emerge must serve the interests and requirements of consumers because they're the end-users. (2) The European mobile payment market must be integrated. (3) All incumbents and new entrants must operate under the same conditions. The EC must “operate with a strong degree of caution” because m-payments are such a new market, he said. While everyone acknowledges the need for common technical standards, the question is when they should be adopted and whether they should be set by law or the market, he said. Some want to wait until the market is clearer, while others say waiting too long may make it difficult to develop harmonized technical rules because local or regional solutions may have emerged, he said. The critical thing is to find the right timing, he said. Another important m-payment issue is finding a common business model, the source said. Mobile payments include a broad complex of payment business models. Non-traditional players such as Google’s Android, Apple, mobile network operators and handset makers want a piece of the pie, and it’s not clear how they'll find agreement with traditional players such as banks, he said. Some stakeholders, such as the European Payments Council, think the EC assessment (CD May 15 p8) of the state of m-payments in Europe is pessimistic, he said. Such systems are already a reality and markets are emerging, so the EC’s use of the term “stalemate” in the green paper may have been too strong, he said. But momentum so far hasn’t been strong, he said. The key driver for m-payments will be smartphone penetration, which is rapidly increasing, he said. One key roadblock now is that some technologies, such as near-field communications, aren’t available in current handsets, he said. That seems to be changing, however, he added.
Europe isn’t lagging behind in tackling challenges to mobile payments, the chairman of the European Payments Council’s m-channel working group said in an interview. The payment channel is still considered an emerging one across the world, as in Europe, Dag-Inge Flatraaker said. Each region “has a different starting point and specific target scenarios,” he said. Many European Commission suggestions for integrating Europe’s market for mobile, Internet and credit-card payments won’t achieve their desired goals, he said. The EC is digesting comments on its January “green” (discussion) paper on the issues and the results of a May 4 Brussels conference on card, Internet and mobile payments, and expects to publish its latest thoughts by the end of July, Jonathan Faull, director general of the Internal Market and Services Directorate, told the conference.
The Motion Picture Experts Group is close to a new standard relating to second-screen viewing, MPEG Chairman Leonardo Chiariglione said in an interview Friday. The idea is to allow broadcasters to use iPhones, iPads and similar devices as a second content channel that’s linked to what’s being transmitted on TV, he said. For that to happen, they must be semantically connected, he said. The new standard could appear in mid-2013, he said.
Every political group in the European Parliament looks set to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, members of the House’s International Trade (INTA) Committee said during a debate Wednesday in Brussels. “It’s clear to me ACTA will be rejected by Parliament,” said INTA Chairman Vital Moreira, of Portugal and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). Lawmakers should make it a “dead letter,” said David Martin, of the U.K. and S&D, who’s writing the response for the lead committee vetting the pact. The European Commission continued to defend the treaty and to try to counter ongoing criticisms, but it will now probably have to decide what its next steps are if Parliament nixes ACTA.
The European Parliament should reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, said the author of the response to the controversial treaty from the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee Tuesday. ACTA takes a one-size-fits-all approach to counterfeiting, copyright and trademark infringements that fails to meet the unique needs of each sector; doesn’t define key terms; and creates a legal fog for companies, technology users, and Internet platform and service providers, Amelia Andersdotter of Sweden and the Greens/European Free Alliance said in a draft report. Separately, the pact’s Internet provisions came under fire Tuesday from the European privacy watchdog, which said they don’t adequately balance intellectual property (IP) rights enforcement with privacy and data protection.
LONDON -- It’s too soon to regulate the Internet, particularly in the area of net neutrality, speakers from telcos, Facebook and Skype said Thursday at the IIR telecom regulation forum. The Internet is only 20 years old, an adolescent “full of potential but also full of doubts,” said Jean-Jacques Sahel, Skype government and regulatory affairs director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The net neutrality debate, which shows no signs of abating, is part of a much larger discussion about commercial models in the Internet and telecom sectors, said Telefonica Group Regulatory Policy Director Robert Murik. It’s too early to regulate because no one knows where this is going, he said.
LONDON -- “It’s irresistible” to move toward using the 700 MHz band for mobile broadband services, the head of the EU Radio Spectrum Policy Group said Wednesday at an IIR telecom regulation conference. The issue of using the spectrum for a “second digital dividend” (the 800 MHz band is now in the process of being set aside in EU members for wireless services)exploded at WRC-12 when many African and Arab countries pushed for its release. Europe was cautious at first but followed along “quite happily,” said RSPG Chairman Roberto Viola. The WRC decision to allow transition after WRC-15 was a major result, and the idea of being able to use the spectrum is heaven for device makers and consumers, he said.