New Rules For Online Platforms And Search Engines Offering Services To Businesses In The European Union And The United Kingdom

• Published date: 30 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Compliance, Contracts and Commercial Law, Advertising, Marketing & Branding
• Law Firm: Mayer Brown
• Author: Mr Mark Prinsley, Oliver Yaros, Dr. Ulrich Worm, Christoph J. Crützen and Ondrej Hajda

On 12 July 2020, the Platform to Business Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 ("P2B Regulation") on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online platforms and search engines became directly applicable in Member States of the European Union ("EU") and, as a result of the Brexit transition period, the United Kingdom ("UK").

The P2B Regulation requires online platforms and search engines based anywhere in the world which offer services to commercial users in the EU or the UK to increase fairness and transparency when dealing with such commercial users, including by refraining from certain practices deemed to be unfair and implementing an internal complaints-handling system. The effect of the P2B Regulation is that non-compliant terms and conditions are null and void. The P2B Regulation leaves space open for EU Member States to legislate for additional sanctions for infringement of the P2B Regulation.¹

Online platforms and search engines offering services to businesses in the EU and the UK should determine whether they are subject to the P2B Regulation and, if they are, ensure that their contractual relationships with business users of their services are compliant with the P2B Regulation.

To help online platforms and search engines achieve compliance with the P2B Regulation, the European Commission published a Questions & Answers document to provide guidance to businesses on the main provisions of the regulation.

Who does the P2B Regulation apply to?

The P2B Regulation applies to online intermediation services ("OIS")² and search engines³ anywhere in the world that provide services to business users (including private individuals acting in a commercial or professional capacity) in the EU and the UK to enable them to reach consumers in the EU or the UK.

The P2B Regulation has extraterritorial application. It does not matter where the provider of the OIS or search engine is established, as long as it facilitates transactions between EU / UK businesses and EU / UK consumers. For example, an online platform that is based in the United States of America but allows EU businesses to reach EU consumers through advertising their product would be in scope of the P2B Regulation and the provider of the service would have to comply with the P2B Regulation's requirements.

Different types of OIS are covered by the P2B Regulation. In short, these are online platforms which have a contractual relationship with a business user and which enable the business user to...