Legal Requirements and Challenges for e-Business within the Single Electronic European Market

Abstract

The advancements in Information and Communication Technologies have not been fully exploited by industries despite the great potential they offer. A major initiative by the European Commission to establish a single electronic European market (SEEM) will provide a platform for e-Business on a pan European level. Legal issues represent one of the top concerns for the SEEM, which is high on the agenda of the European Union (EU) policies and strategies. This paper summarizes some of the key research findings of the EU funded SEEMseed project (Study, Evaluate, and Explore in the Domain of the Single Electronic European Market 2006), based on the four legal studies conducted in the project. It first presents the legal requirements of the SEEM through the e-Business life cycle, and then reveals the major legal barriers and possible solutions in the EU for the development of pan European e-Business platforms, based on an extensive pan European stakeholder survey.