Lexicon > Information Society Services
IT Glossary
Information society services are defined as any service normally provided for remuneration, at a distance by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services.
To qualify as an information society service, the service must be :
- provided without the parties being present simultaneously;
- sent at origin and received at destination by means of electronic processing equipment ;
- provided by data transmission on individual request.
The Member States of the European Union may not make access to the activity of an information society service provider subject to a prior authorization regime.
The information society service provider shall provide, in a clear, understandable and unambiguous manner and before the recipient of the service places an order, at least the following information:
- The different technical steps to follow to conclude the contract ;
- Whether or not the contract once concluded is archived by the service provider and whether or not it is accessible;
- Technical means to identify and correct data entry errors before the order is placed;
- The languages proposed for the conclusion of the contract.
In addition, providers must indicate any codes of conduct to which they are subject, as well as information on how these codes can be consulted electronically.
Finally, providers must provide contract terms and conditions to the recipient in a manner that allows the recipient to retain and reproduce them.
Point of legislation
” Information society services encompass a wide range of economic activities that take place online. These activities may include, in particular, selling goods online. Activities such as the delivery of goods as such or the provision of offline services are not covered. Information society services are not limited exclusively to services that result in the conclusion of online contracts, but, to the extent that they represent an economic activity, they extend to services that are not remunerated by those who receive them, such as services that provide online information or commercial communications, or those that provide tools for searching, accessing and retrieving data. […]
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Recital 18 of Directive 2000/31/EC
Point of jurisprudence
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that ” constitutes an “information society service”, (…), an intermediation service consisting, by means of an application for an intelligent telephone, in bringing together, for a fee, persons wishing to make an urban journey and authorized cab drivers, for which the provider of the service has concluded contracts for the provision of services with those drivers in return for payment of a monthly subscription, but does not transmit orders to them, does not set the fare or collect it from them, who pay the fare directly to the cab driver, and does not exercise control over the quality of the vehicles and their drivers and over the latter’s behaviour. “
Court of Justice of the European Union, December 3, 2020, N° C-62/19
The Bouchara Law firm assists you in particular in :
- The drafting of your B to C and B to B terms and conditions;
- The drafting and negotiation of your special conditions of sale;
- The compliance of your organization with the GDPR especially your e-commerce platforms.
- The drafting of data protection policies (privacy policy, computer charter…).
