Activities of Sajjad KARIM related to 2015/0284(COD)
Plenary speeches (1)
Cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on ensuring the cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market PDF (1 MB)
Amendments (23)
Amendment 48 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Since the sinternalgle market comprises an area without internal frontiers relying, inter alia, on the free movement of services and persons, it is necessary to provide that consumers can use online content services which offer access to content such as music, games, films or sporting events not only in their Member State of residence but also when they are temporarily present in other Member States of the Union travelling for leisure or business. Therefore, barriers that hamper access and use of suchlegally acquired online content services cross border should be eliminated.
Amendment 53 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 2
Recital 2
(2) The technological development leading to a proliferation of portable devices such as tablets and smartphones increasingly facilitates the use of online content services by providing access to them regardless of the consumers' location. There is a rapidly growing demand on the part of consumers for access to content and innovative online services not only in their home countryMember State of residence but also when they are temporarily present in another Member State of the Union.
Amendment 55 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) Consumers increasingly enter into contractual arrangements with service providers for the provision of online content services. However, consumers that are temporarily present in another Member State of the Union often cannot access and use the online content services that they have legally acquired the right to use in their home countryMember State of residence.
Amendment 63 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6 a (new)
Recital 6 a (new)
(6a) The controlled, supervised and proportionate implementation of cross- border portability will provide its beneficiaries with an additional means of accessing online content legally.
Amendment 66 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) The acquisition of a licence for the relevant rights is not always possible, notably when rights in content are licensed on an exclusive basis. In order to ensure the territorial exclusivity, online service providers often undertake, in their licence contracts with right holders, including broadcasting organisations or events organisers, to prevent their subscribers from accessing and using their service outside the territory for which the service provider holds the licence. These contractual restrictions imposed on service providers require providers to take measures such as disallowing access to their services from IP addresses located outside the territory concerned. Therefore, while the upholding of the principle of territoriality due to its importance to the growth and financing of the audiovisual sector is essential, one of the obstacles to the cross-border portability of online content services is to be found in the contracts concluded between the online service providers and their subscribers, which in turn reflect the territorial restriction clauses included in contracts concluded between those service providers and right holders.
Amendment 72 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 12
Recital 12
(12) Therefore, the objective of this Regulation is to adapt the legal framework in order to ensure that the licensing of rights no longer presents barriers toregarding copyright and related rights in order to reach a common approach in the provision of legally acquired online content to users temporarily present in a Member State other than their Member State of residence. The concept of cross- border portability of online content services in the Union andshould be clearly distinguished from that theof cross- border portability can be ensuredaccess, which does not fall within the scope of this Regulation.
Amendment 82 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) This Regulation should, therefore, apply to online content services that a service provider, after having obtained the relevant rights from right holders in a given territory, provides to its subscribers on the basis of a contract, by any means including streaming, downloading or any other technique which allows use of that content. A registration to receive content alerts, the transfer of data, or a mere acceptance of HTML cookies should not be regarded as a contract for the provision of online content service for the purposes of this Regulation.
Amendment 83 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 15
Recital 15
(15) This Regulation should apply only to online content services which subscribers can effectively access and use in their Member State in which they habituallyof residence without being limited to a specific location, as it is not appropriate to require service providers that do not offer portable services within their home country Member State of residence of the subscriber to do so across borders.
Amendment 88 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) This Regulation should apply to online content services which are provided against payment of money. Providers of such services are in a position to verify the Member State of residence of their subscribers. The right to use an online content service should be regarded as acquired against payment of money whether such payment is made directly to the provider of the online content service, or to another party such as a provider offering a package combining a telecommunications service and an online content service operated by another provider. Neither contributions towards licence fees, nor the transfer or exchange of data shall be deemed as payment by the consumer.
Amendment 92 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 17
Recital 17
(17) Online content services which are provided without the payment of money are also included in the scope of this Regulation to the extent that providersmay choose not to verify the Member State of residence of their subscribers. OTherefore, online content services which are provided without the payment of money and whose providers do not verify the Member State of residence of their subscribers should be outside the scope of this Regulation as their inclusion would involve a major change to the way these services are delivered and involve disproportionate costs. As concerns verification of the subscriber's Member State of residence, information such as a payment of a licence fee for other services provided should have the possibility to opt in to this Regulation provided that they comply with the verification requirements regarding the Member State of residence, to the existence of a contract for internet or telephone connection, IP address or other means of authentication, should be relied upon, if they enable the provider to have reasonable indicators as to the Member State of residence of its subscriberssame extent as content and services offered against the payment of money.
Amendment 104 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) In order to ensure the cross-border portability of legally acquired online content services it is necessary to require that online service providers enable their subscribers to use the service in the Member State of their temporary presence by providing them access to the same content on the same range and number of devices, for the same number of users and with the same range of functionalities as those offered in their Member State of residence. This obligation is mandatory and therefore the parties may not exclude it, derogate from it or vary its effect. Any action by a service provider which would prevent the subscriber from accessing or using the service while temporarily present in a Member State, for example restrictions to the functionalities of the service or to the quality of its delivery, would amount to a circumvention of the obligation to enable cross-border portability of online content services and therefore would be contrary to this Regulation.
Amendment 111 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) Requiring that the delivery of online content services to subscribers temporarily present in Member States other than their Member State of residence be of the same quality as in the Member State of residence could result in high costs for service providers and thus ultimately for subscribers. Therefore, it is not appropriate for this Regulation to require that the provider of an online content service take measures to ensure quality of delivery of such services beyond the quality available via the local online access chosen by a subscriber while temporarily present in another Member State. In such cases the provider shall not be liable if the quality of delivery of the service is lower. Nevertheless, if the provider expressly agrees to guarantee certain quality of delivery to subscribers while temporarily present in other Member States, the provider shall be bound by such agreement and shall display the relevant delivery information on their website.
Amendment 119 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 22
Recital 22
(22) Service providersFee-based content service providers and services without payment of money which opt in to this Regulation should not be liable for breach of any contractual provisions contrary to the obligation to enable their subscribers to use the service in the Member State of their temporary presence. Therefore clauses in contracts designed to prohibit or limit the cross- border portability of online content services should be unenforceable.
Amendment 122 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 22 a (new)
Recital 22 a (new)
(22a) Member State of residence implies that the subscriber has a stable residence in the Member State to which he or she returns regularly. For the purposes of this Regulation, a subscriber has one Member State of residence.
Amendment 129 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 23
Recital 23
(23) Service providers should ensure that their subscribers are properly informed about the conditions of enjoyment of online content services in Member States other than the Member State of residence of the subscribers. Theis Regulation enables right holders to require that the service provider make use of effective means in order to verify on an ongoing basis that the online content service is provided in conformity with this Regulation. It is necessary, however, to ensure that the required means are reasonable and do not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve this purpose. Examples of the necessary technical and organisational measures may include sampling of IP address instead of constant monitoring of location, transparent information to the individuals about the methods used for the verification and its purposes, and appropriate security measures. Considering that for purposes of the verification what matters is not the location, but rather, in which Member State the subscriber is accessing the service, precise location data should not be collected and processed for this purpose. Similarly, where authentication of a subscriber is sufficient in order to deliver the service provided, identification of the subscriber should not be required.
Amendment 135 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 23 a (new)
Recital 23 a (new)
(23a) To this end, providers of online content services should apply the verification criteria set out in this Regulation to provide effective verification and legal certainty. If an online content service provider cannot effectively proceed with this verification, portability cannot be offered to a subscriber.
Amendment 153 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the adaptation of the legal framework so that cross-border portability of online content services is provided in the Union, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States and can therefore, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve its objective. Therefore, this Regulation does not substantially affect the way the rights are licensed and does not oblige right holders and service providers to renegotiate contracts. Moreover, this Regulation does not require that the provider takes measures to ensure the quality of delivery of online content services outside the Member State of residence of the subscriber. Finally, this Regulation does not apply to service providers who offer services without payment of money and who do not verify the subscriber's Member State of residence. Therefore, it does not impose any disproportionate costsexercise the option to comply with this Regulation,
Amendment 169 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – point c
Article 2 – point c
(c) "Member State of residence" means the Member State where the subscriber is habitually residinges and returns to regularly;
Amendment 179 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – point d
Article 2 – point d
(d) "Temporarily present" means athe transient presence of a subscriber in a Member State other than the Member State of residence;
Amendment 188 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – point e – subparagraph 2 – point 2
Article 2 – point e – subparagraph 2 – point 2
(2) without payment of money provided that provider has decided to offer portability and the subscriber's Member State of residence is verified by the provider;
Amendment 210 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 a (new)
Article 3 a (new)
Article 3 a Verification of the Member State of residence 1. Providers of online content service provided against payment of money shall make use of effective means in order to verify the Member State of residence of its subscribers. These means shall be reasonable and not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve their purpose. 2. In order to comply with the obligation set out in paragraph 1, the provider shall rely on the following verification means, or equivalent means as agreed between rights holders and service providers; (a) an identity card or any other valid document confirming subscriber's Member State of residence, to include electronic identification means; (b) the billing address or postal address of the subscriber; (c) bank details such as bank account, local credit or debit card of the subscriber; (d) physical visitation to the place of installation of a set top box or a similar device used for supply of services to the subscribers; (e) a subscriber being party to a contract for internet or telephone connection in the member state of residence; (f) payment of a license fee by a subscriber for other services provided in the Member state of residence; (g) sampling or periodic checking of Internet Protocol (IP) address to identify where the subscriber accesses content and predominantly uses the online content service be it internal or external to the Member State of residence, or by other geo-locational means equivalent to this; (h) registration on national, regional or local electoral rolls, if publicly available; or (i) the payment of national, regional or local/poll taxes, if available. Unless the Member State of residence can be sufficiently established on the basis of a single verification means, the provider shall rely on a combination of such means. 3. The provider and the holders of copyright and related rights or those holding any other rights in the content of an online content service may agree, in order to take account of new technological developments, any other means of equivalence in accordance with paragraph 1 to verify the Member state of residence. 4 Online content service providers, using the means in paragraph 2, shall ensure subscribers are demonstrating regular return in predominantly accessing content within the Member State of residence. 5. The provider shall be entitled to request the subscriber to provide such information as is necessary for the verification of the Member State of residence in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 4. If the subscriber fails to provide such adequate information as to determine the Member State of residence the provider shall prevent the subscriber from accessing or using the online content service when he or she is temporarily present in a Member State other than the Member State of residence.
Amendment 223 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1
Article 5 – paragraph 1
Amendment 232 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2
Article 5 – paragraph 2