EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 255: Breve til nyudnævnte kommissærer

Europaudvalget 2019-20
EUU Alm.del Bilag 255
Offentligt

Didier Reynders

Commissioner for Justice

European Commission

MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY,

BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL

AFFAIRS

Dear Commissioner Didier Reynders,

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY, BUSI-

NESS AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS

Please accept my warmest congratulations on your appointment as Com-

missioner for Justice.

A timely response to the challenges and seizing the opportunities posed by

climate change and rapid digitalization is of critical importance to ensure

a more sustainable and prosperous EU. Consumer demands play an im-

portant role in creating competitive, innovative and sustainable markets. I

would like to present you with the overall Danish agenda in your area of

responsibility, which I hope will be of interest to you.

Consumer policy applicable to the digital future

With reference to your statements in the parliamentary hearing, we share

your opinion that consumers should be empowered, properly informed and

encouraged to make sustainable choices. Over the past few years, Euro-

pean consumers’ consumption patterns and opportunities have been

changing. Globalization and digitalization have led consumers to act in

completely new ways, and consumers have been given a much wider

choice, which can be challenging to navigate on bigger and more complex

markets.

With the rapid digital development and the emergence of new business

models, it is important to ensure that consumer protection rules are fit for

the digital age. Although a political agreement on the omnibus directive

from New Deal for Consumers has recently been reached and progress

made on the proposal on collective redress, more needs to be done. When

developing new consumer policy, it is of high importance to continue the

inclusion of behavioural analysis and methods in order to secure that the

proposed regulation will have the intentional effect on the market and is fit

for purpose.

Strengthened enforcement with third countries

I have positively noticed that you have been tasked with ensuring con-

sumer protection within cross-border trade with third countries. This is

highly relevant as challenges in relation to consumer protection go beyond

the frontiers of the Union. In order to strengthen the cross border consumer

enforcement, international agreements with third countries should be ne-

gotiated. This has been made possible through the revised CPC regulation.

Slotsholmsgade 10-12

DK-1216 Copenhagen K

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Fax

+45 33 92 33 50

+45 33 12 37 78

CVR-nr. 10 09 24 85

EAN nr. 5798000026001

[email protected]

www.em.dk

EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 255: Breve til nyudnævnte kommissærer

Moreover, I encourage you to look more online platforms and websites

from third countries as they do not always comply with EU marketing

rules. This implies that European companies are not competing on a level

playing field with companies from third countries. Despite the fact that EU

rules are applicable to third country business’ marketing, it is often diffi-

cult for the consumer protection authorities to pursue cases against com-

panies established in third countries, as there is no legally binding bilateral

cooperation agreements between EU and third countries.

Company law and the SME Strategy

Providing the right regulatory framework for businesses is not just im-

portant within the digital sphere, but also for company law in general. We

are facing a number of challenges posed by climate change and rapid dig-

italisation. I fully support your mission to ensure that company law con-

tributes to the upcoming SME strategy so that SMEs can prosper through

creating solutions to the current challenges. Businesses have a significant

responsibility as well as opportunity to deliver the changes necessary to

tackle the issues facing us today. We need to have the right framework in

place to ensure that our companies are able to harness the opportunities as

well as held accountable for their sustainable promises.

In general, I find it important to strike a balance between providing busi-

nesses a number of rights and ensuring that they comply with the corre-

sponding obligations.

Transparency around our companies’ conduct is key

–

not only to see whether they are delivering on their promises, but also to

make sure that we have efficient systems in place to address questionable

practices. That is why I find the proposal on public country-by-country

reporting an important step towards a fairer and more effective tax system

in the EU. We will seek to revitalise the negotiations in Council, and work

towards a more ambitious proposal containing global disaggregation, re-

quiring multinational companies to report country by country for all coun-

tries.

I also see increased transparency concerning companies’ social responsi-

bility as a way of ensuring that businesses are not just talking the talk but

also walking the walk towards improved practices. I look forward to work-

ing with you on updating the framework for responsible business conduct

and thereby contribute to a more sustainable future.

Digital trust as an enabler of Artificial Intelligence

I have positively noticed the aim of the new Commission to deliver a Eu-

ropean approach to artificial intelligence within your first 100 days in of-

fice. In this regard, the aim should be to make data ethics a competitive

advantage for European businesses going hand-in-hand with innovation.

A European approach could make us a frontrunner in the responsible use

EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 255: Breve til nyudnævnte kommissærer

of artificial intelligence and data. By introducing a European Data Ethics

Seal we would enable consumers to easily identify companies who take

data ethics seriously. Together with a requirement for the largest European

companies to publish their data ethics policies, the digital economy would

become more transparent for consumers. Attached you will find a non-

paper explaining our suggestions to this agenda.

Ensuring consumer enforcement in the platform economy

It is time to modernize the regulatory framework of the platform economy

in order to ensure digital responsibility, better cross-border consumer en-

forcement and to address emerging issues that are not dealt with under the

current rules. We also need to address the increasing regulatory fragmen-

tation at European and member-state level regarding the liability-regime

for third party content. This has led to legal uncertainty for both businesses

and consumers.

A modernized framework for the European platform economy should

maintain the essence of the e-Commerce Directive, namely the country of

origin principle, which the European platform economy has benefitted im-

mensely from. At the same time, we face an important and necessary dis-

cussion regarding liability regimes and the responsibilities of especially

large and influential companies in handling data versus the possibilities for

smaller companies to develop new business models and scale up across the

Single Market.

We should modernize the regulatory framework to find horizontal solu-

tions that addresses the emerging issues in the platform economy, eradi-

cates regulatory fragmentation through uniform application and enforce-

ment of the notice and take down of illegal content such as misleading

marketing and dangerous products across the EU while strengthening the

competitiveness of the European platform economy.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Kollerup

EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 255: Breve til nyudnævnte kommissærer

Data and Ethics - The New European Competitive Advantage

Proposal

Data Ethics as Corporate Social Responsibility

The Commission should consider a revision of the directive as regards

disclosure of non-financial

and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups.

The revision should include

provisions for certain large undertakings - to prepare a non-financial statement containing in-

formation relating to their data ethics policies as part of their annual management reports.

European Data Ethics Seal

The Commission should encourage the development of a European Data Ethics Seal by the rele-

vant industry and standardization bodies. The seal should be awarded to companies, products

and services that meet a pre-defined list of data ethical requirements e.g. companies or products

that meet high standards for data security, companies or products that do not collect unneces-

sary data on the user, or companies or products that have been tested for bias etc. The European

Data Ethi s Seal ould e a ay to operatio alize the Co

issio ’s idea of ethi s y desig a d

make it visible for consumers which companies, products and services to trust - and thus creating

a market incentive for producers to become more data ethical.

Standards on AI Trustworthiness

The Commission should investigate the possibilities for promoting the use of technical standards

on AI Trustworthiness in the European legislation. ISO/IEC and CEN/CENELEC as well as the IEEE

are currently working on different aspects of standardization of AI and ethics/trust. The inherent

agility of technical standards could create the necessary balance between long-term durability

and short-term efficiency.

Challenge

Trust is the most important component in ensuring wide uptake of digital technology and solu-

tions. It is thus of the utmost importance that the European Union succeeds in creating a legal

a d ethi al fra e ork that a e sure itize s’ trust i the e te h ologies. Moreo er,

the

responsible use of data has the potential to become a competitive advantage for European busi-

nesses in the competition with American and Chinese companies. In order to give EU businesses

a first mover advantage, the EU should take concrete steps to strengthen data and AI ethics

through transparency, and thus empowering consumers and businesses to choose products and

solutions that are based on a responsible use of AI and data.

Background

Our ambition as a European community should be to break down national silos to ensure that

the leading digital companies of the future will be European. EU has a very important global role

in terms of promoting the responsible and ethical approach to data use. We are convinced that

Europe not only could, but should lead the way for responsible use of data - and thereby poten-

tially gain an invaluable competitive advantage on the global marketplace.