– having regard to Directive 98/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 1998 on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access ,

– having regard to Council Decision 2014/243/EU of 14 April 2014 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the European Convention on the legal protection of services based on, or consisting of, conditional access ,

Is the first half-sentence of Article 12(1) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’), in conjunction with Article 2(b) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electron ...[+++]ic commerce’), to be interpreted as meaning that, for the purposes of ‘provision’ within the meaning of Article 2(b) of Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’), the mere fact that the information society service is made available, that is to say, in this particular instance, that an open WLAN is put in place, is sufficient, or must the service be ‘actively promoted’, for example?

47. Regrets the approval of the Services Directive, concerning the liberalisation of services in the EU, and warns against the consequences of its implementation; recognises the importance of the services sector for economic growth and job creation, but takes the view that the liberalisation of services promotes labour deregulation, and social and environmental dumping, and jeopardises public services, jobs and social and consumer rights; stresses that governments are losing their regulatory and monitoring role in respect of service provision by foreign enterprises on their territory, contributing to further deregulation of the market; rejects the a ...[+++]rtificial division of economic and non-economic services of general interest and stresses that this is a way to put public services under the scope of the directive;

Covers legal advisory and representation services in any legal, judicial and statutory procedures; drafting services of legal documentation and instruments; certification consultancy; and escrow and settlement services.

(4) Whereas the Commission undertook a wide-ranging consultation based on the Green Paper 'Legal Protection of Encrypted Services in the Internal Market`; whereas the results of that consultation confirmed the need for a Community legal instrument ensuring the legal protection of all those services whose remuneration relies on conditional access;