Digital Content Portability and its Relation to Conformity with the Contract

Abstract

In this paper the author analyses the possible convergences and divergences of two current legislative proposals of the European Commission: the Portability Regulation and the Digital Content Directive. Both proposals address the issue of access to digital content from different perspectives and complement each other, although they use different legal terminology and in some respects have a different scope of application in the question of cross-border portability of the digital content provided for monetary counter performance to consumers. The Portability Regulation focuses on the cross-border portability of digital content [Art. 3 (1) Portability Regulation), while the Digital Content Directive specifies the consumer rights related to the distribution of digital content and subsumes the accessibility of digital content under the concept of “conformity of the digital content with the contract” [Art. 6 (1), (2) Digital Content Directive). The author aims to answer whether a consumer who is not allowed to use the digital content in EU Member States besides the Member State of his residence will be entitled to pursue claims arising from the non-conformity of the digital content with the contract.