Statement on the Proposed Digital Content Directive

While the EU trilogue process for the new Digital Content Directive (“DCD”) is ongoing, research group 4 (“Data as a means of payment”) at the Weizenbaum Institute has published a statement on data-related questions of the proposed directive.

The Digital Content Directive aims to harmonize some aspects of the legal relations between consumers and traders for the supply of digital contents across the European Union. Covering downloads for music or software as well as services such as Facebook or Google, the Directive seeks to protect consumers and at the same time foster competition by removing barriers to cross-border trade.

The DCD proposal has sparked some controversy for possibly introducing an instrument that acknowledges contracts in which personal data is being treated as contractual “counter-performance”. The statement focuses largely on situations where consumers provide data in exchange for a digital content or service.

Statement on the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content COM(2015) 634 (Digital Content Directive)