Luxembourg, Austria and Germany are the only countries in the EU
to have implemented the E-commerce Directive, a law which should
have been incorporated into the laws of all Member States before
17th January 2002. The furthest from compliance are Italy and the
UK.
Six EU countries (Finland, France, Denmark, Spain, Belgium and
Sweden) have draft laws in place which have been notified to the
European Commission. The Directive also applies to those countries
in the European Economic Area which are not part of the EU, namely
Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. Both Norway and Iceland have
draft laws in place which have been notified.
Four countries have draft laws in place which have not yet been
notified to the Commission: Ireland, Greece, The Netherlands and
Portugal.
Last Thursday, the Department of Trade and Industry released the
first draft of the UK laws for an 8-week consultation period. In
doing so, the UK moved one step ahead of Italy which is still in
the process of drawing up its draft laws to implement the
Directive.
