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The EU Parliament Updates Consumer Protection Rules to Improve Transparency in Online Marketplaces

The European parliament has approved changes to the EU consumer protection rules, which govern online marketplaces and comparison services, such as eBay, Amazon, Skyscanner and Airbnb.

According to the new rules, enacted as a European Union Directive, marketplaces and comparison services will have to disclose the key parameters that determine how listings resulting from search queries are ranked. Marketplaces and ...

European Parliament Approves Precedential Copyright Legislation

The European Union's Parliament has approved its controversial copyright legislation, known as the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market 2016/0280, which introduces precedential copyright arrangements. 

The legislation’s objective is to ensure that the copyright rights and obligations also apply online, while striving to ensure that the Internet remains an environment for freedom of expression. One of the directive’s ...

European Parliament Proposes Bill for Taking-Down Online Content Supporting Terrorism

The European Parliament voiced its support of a proposed regulation imposing a fine of up to 4% of an online service provider’s turnover if it does not remove terrorism-inciting content within one-hour of notification by authorities.

The proposed regulation also requires Internet service providers to take proactive measures to protect their services against the dissemination of terroristic content. The measures ...

Israeli Court Rules a Bank’s Policy to Prohibit Opening Accounts for Customers Engaged in Providing Services Relating to Cryptocurrencies is Unreasonable

The Tel Aviv District Court has ruled that a bank’s policy to prohibit opening accounts for customers engaged in providing services relating to cryptocurrencies, is unreasonable. The decision was delivered in a lawsuit brought by a company that engages in Bitcoin mining against a bank branch that had closed the company’s account. The question raised before the court was whether ...

EU Regulators publish opinion on the Interplay between the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive

EU Regulators publish opinion on the Interplay between GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published an opinion detailing the relationship between the GDPR and the ePrivacy directive, which have a different, but overlapping, material scope.

The opinion reiterated the accepted principle - lex specialis derogate legi generali - special provisions prevail over general rules in ...

Israeli Credit Data Law Comes into Force

The long awaited and controversial Israeli Credit Data Law, 5776-2016 has come into force on April 12, establishing an overall framework for collecting credit data into a Central Credit Register, operated by the Bank of Israel (Israel’s central bank), and providing it from there onward to Credit Bureaus that engage in credit rating assessments. 

The new law requires institutions such ...

U.S. SEC Publishes Unofficial Framework for Analyzing Digital Assets as Securities

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published a framework for analyzing whether digital assets are “investment contracts” securities. The framework is said to present the views of its authors and is not officially recognized by the commission. However, it is meant to provide guidance on this topic.

The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decisions in Howey from the 1940s ...

Dutch Regulator Issues Opinion on Prohibition of “Cookie Walls”

The Dutch Data Protection Authority issued an opinion stating that websites that block the access of users that do not consent to install cookies, violate European data protection regulations. The opinion was published after receiving many complaints and explained that tracking behavior on the web using a cookies or similar technology is currently the most extensive personal data processing activity.  ...

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