European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee Votes on Wallis Report

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 4th Sep 2000

An extraordinary meeting of European Parliament Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee will tonight vote on the Wallis Report, which contains the contentious issues on jurisdiction and e-commerce - that is, in a cross-border dispute, within the EU, arising out of an e-commerce transaction, whose courts, the consumers' or the businesses', should have jurisdiction?

The last time this report was voted it was highly contentious and resulted in Diana Wallis voting against her own report, after it being amended, and starting all over again.

Diana Wallis' new amendments, which will be voted on at tonight's meeting, have attracted support from the CBI and the Alliance for Electronic Business, and are also being pushed by the DTI, as a sensible compromise which supports existing consumer rights whilst respecting small businesses' concerns and fears about exposure to 15 different EU jurisdictions.

Commenting ahead of the vote Ms Wallis said: "This is a tremendous opportunity to give E-business in Europe a huge boost by building confidence amongst both consumers and businesses.

"With this report, the EU will be breaking new ground in laying the foundations for a Europe-wide system of alternative dispute resolution, particularly for on-line disputes."