[registrars] EU regulations potentially impact global Domain industry ....

["Paul M. Kane" <Paul.Kane@REACTO.com>]

Phillip and all

May I suggest you have a word with folks in Brussels to assist them get on the right track..... The VAT directive is onerous to Registrars (and Registries) cost base, and the Data Protection paper looks as if it will have an impact on the Registrars (and Registries) businesses too.....

Additional information from my reliable source in the Brussels below....

Best

Paul

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Data Protection: European Parliament Rapporteur - Mr. Marco Cappato, Italian, Non aligned politically

The second reading in Parliament of the draft Directive will begin during the lead committee's (Committee on Citizen's Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs) first February meeting.
Despite the fact that Marco Cappato is no longer a full member of the committee he will continue as Rapporteur.

The Parliament's reaction to the Council Common Position cannot yet be assessed.

On the Article 13 (Unsolicited Commercial Communications) front, the debate is sure to be very interesting once again. The new committee chairperson, Ana Palacio (Spanish, Conservative) has before been more sympathetic to the opt-out approach but may find it difficult to maintain her position since her home political party's stance (the party in Government in Spain) is strongly in favour of opt-in. There is as yet no indication whether those MEPs who stood vehemently in favour of either opt-in or opt-out would be prepared to accept the compromise solution as put forward by the Council in its Common Position (opt-in, though undertakings would be able to contact their customers concerning new products or services they are offering, so long as the new products/services are directly related to the products/services currently being provided to that customer).

Meanwhile it has become even more clear that the major voices in the Council are increasingly in favour of the opt-in approach for e-mail addresses.

Recital 25 in the Common Position deals with 'cookies'. This compromise text states that companies whose website(s) use cookies must provide clear information on the website (i) that the website contains cookies and (ii) the purpose of those cookies. The so-called 'opt-in for cookies' amendment, proposed by Parliament at first reading, has therefore been deleted from the draft Directive.

VAT on E-Commerce

The Council has finally agreed upon the main principles of the Commission’s proposals on the
application of VAT to digital products (such as computer games and software, delivered on line as
opposed to in a physical form), as well as subscription-based and pay-per-view radio and television
broadcasting. The Council has instructed its secretariat to finalise a text for agreement at the February
Finance Council.

          The main principles of the draft text as it currently stands are:
          (i) B2B services within EU to be taxed at place of the customer;
          (ii) B2C services within EU to be taxed at place of supplier;
          (iii) services supplied by EU business to non-EU customer taxed at place of customer (ie. no VAT to be paid in EU);
          (iv) services supplied by non-EU business to customer within EU to be taxed at place of customer.

The European Parliament adopted in its report a measure which introduces revenue-sharing, in order that companies do not register where the rate of VAT is lowest.

There will be a report on the final wording of the text next month, if indeed it is adopted during the February Council meeting.

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