Digital Content Directive And Rules For Contracts On Continuous Supply

Abstract

This paper is in three parts. The first part gives a brief summary of the Digital Content Directive. The second part looks in more detail at longterm contracts for digital content or digital services, concentrating mainly on digital services but also considering contracts for digital content where there is to be “a series of individual acts of supply” and where the digital content is made available for a fixed period. It also considers “mixed” contracts under which digital services are to be supplied along with digital content and/or goods. The third and fourth parts look at gaps in the legislation from the points of view of consumers and then of traders, considering both issues that fall within the scope of the Directive yet nonetheless are left to Member States, and issues that are outside the scope of the Directive, and attempting to assess the extent to which these gaps may cause problems. The paper ends with a reminder that we need to consider also enforcement by public bodies and consumer organisations, which may have a particular importance in relation to the supply of digital content and services.