Almost on a daily basis, we receive news about new laws or judgments concerning data protection, e-commerce, intellectual property, etc. This makes very difficult for any company to comply with all its obligations in the field of IT Law.
Alas, any company with a technological component or that makes use of ICT, should pay special attention to the following:
1. Personal Data Protection and cookies policy:
The well-known regulation contained in the Data Protection Act will soon be extended with the introduction of the European Data Protection Regulation, its publication expected on 2015, which will include important developments regarding explicit consent, legitimate interest or territorial scope of the EU legislation.
Also, the amendment of Section 22 of the General Telecommunications Law, also known as the “cookies policy law“, has created several obligations to any webmaster, since know they must previously inform the user about the use of this type of software. The penalties in this matter can reach 150,000.00 Euros.
2. E-commerce
Law 3/2014 for the Defense of Consumers and Users came into force on June 13th, 2014, and includes a number of relevant changes to electronic commerce and, in particular, pre-contractual information, customer service, commercial calls and telemarketing.
3. Intellectual Property
The Spanish Congress approved on July 22nd, 2014 the partial reform of the Copyright Act in order to be submitted to the Senate for its final approval. This reform includes important developments such as the establishment of the ” google tax ” or “AEDE tax”, changes in the concept of private copy, a new regulation of copyright societies, reform of the Commission on Intellectual Property or the regulation of so-called “orphan works”.
This reform will affect both companies and individuals alike.
4. ‘Crowd-funding’ and collaborative consumption.
The Government intends to approve a full crowd-funding regulation, significantly limiting this way of financing companies and projects that the uses and possibilities hitherto covered and will include a system of offenses and sanctions in this matter.
Similarly, in view of the rise of collaborative consumption facilitated by certain apps (i.e., the case of the “Uber” app), certain sectors demand the Government and the European Union a specific regulation that allows such applications but protects the professionals of these sectors.
5. Taxation of technology-based companies
The tax law reform intended by the government incentives and tax breaks to new technology-based companies.
6. Services payment
The proposed Payment Services Directive, approved in July 2013, will contribute to further development of electronic payments within the European market.
Given this constant changing scenario and in order to help and accompany our customers in their business, in Lexland Lawyers we have specialized professionals in the various fields of IT Law to assist you and your company.
Contact us! First consultation completely free.