Exchanges between President von der Leyen's cabinet and EVP Vestager's cabinet on FRAND terms in the Digital Markets Act
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Please forward this email to the office of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and to the office of the Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents that contain the following information held by the Office of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and her cabinet members and of the office of the Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and her cabinet members.
All communications between the office of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and her cabinet members and the office of the Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and her cabinet members in the context of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) concerning
* remuneration for digital content OR
* the role of publishers OR
*the role of rightsholders OR
* rules on fairness for the provision of services OR
* the inclusion of search engines in the context of the DMA (in particular in the context of article 6) OR
* FRAND provisions OR
* the relationship of the DMA with the Copyright in the Digital Sigle Market Directive OR
* any communication with publishers or their representatives, associations or people acting on their behalf in the context of the DMA OR
*Article 6.1.kb
For the avoidance of doubt, the term "information" and "documents" should be understood as broadly as possible and it should definitely include such information and documents that the Commission considers "short-lived" or "unimportant", including letters, correspondence, memos, drafts, meeting notes, records regardless of medium, language or format.
If you hold information in an electronic format, I am asking for an electronic copy of such information in its original data format.
The scope of this request includes but is not limited to any proposals, such as drafting suggestions or table documents for Art 6.1.kb and the relevant recitals in preparation for or during the Digital Markets Act trilogue of 24 March 2022. This request includes third party communications.
I am happy to grant you a reasonable amount of time for the required third party consultations regarding the release of content in possession of the Commission provided by third parties, such as business representatives, lobbyists, outside legal counsel and member states. If permitted by applicable law, I am looking also for the names and affiliations of people who have submitted such information and I am asking for only the minimum amount of redaction of such names if required by law.
The scope of this request includes any comment, email, text message, draft or any other piece of data exchanged between the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and any cabinet and staff member of her office with Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and any cabinet and staff member of her office. If you - for whatever reason - do not consider it relevant to be included in the EU eDomec or ARES system, it does not lose its property as a document under Regulation 1049/2001.
If you end up considering invoking exceptions such as those concerning ongoing legislative work, I am willing to accept partial delivery of documents and kindly ask you to indicate the time at which other documents would no longer be covered by such an exception to allow for a speedy re-filing of this request.
Yours faithfully,
Luca Bertuzzi
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address. This is
necessary for registering and handling your request in line with the
procedural requirements.
Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience.
Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of
your request.
Alternatively, you may use directly the electronic form available on the
Europa website:
[5]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/....
Yours faithfully,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (IC)
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D46531.06A8B6B0
European Commission
Secretariat-General
SG.C1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)
[7][email address]
Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,
My postal address is Brussels Network Office - International Press Centre // 1 Bd Charlemagne // 2nd floor // Brussels.
Yours sincerely,
Luca Bertuzzi
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 31 March 2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
04/04/2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/1932.
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application
will be handled within 15 working days.
The time limit will expire on 28 April 2022. In case this time limit needs
to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union.
Therefore, the European Commission cannot be held accountable for any
technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.
Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission.
For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[5]Privacy statement - access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (IC)
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D46531.06A8B6B0
European Commission
Secretariat-General
SG.C1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)
[7][email address]
Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,
Please note that the deadline indicated by the law to provide the documents has now passed.
Thank you for responding to my request promptly and without undue delay.
Yours sincerely,
Luca Bertuzzi
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping
[4]RE: ATTRIBUTION - Exchanges between President von der Leyen's cabinet
and EVP Vestager's cabinet on Digital Markets Act - Ref. GESTDEM 2022/1932
- Ares(2022)2497334 - Ares(2022)3699639 (Please use this link only if you
are an Ares user – Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e)
utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Sir, Madam,
We refer to your request for access to documents registered on 04.04.2022
under the above mentioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled.
However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling of your
application within the time limit of 15 working days. We apologise for
informing you belatedly about the status of your request and need more
time to finalise your request due to the sensitivity and complexity of the
documents involved.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents.
The new time limit expires on 7 June 2022.
We thank you for your comprehension and apologise for this delay and for
any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
SG D1 Secretariat
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D86938.B0372A40
2. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
3. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
4. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
Mathias Schindler left an annotation ()
Article 7 (3) of Regulation 1049/2001 reads:
"3. In exceptional cases, for example in the event of an application relating to a very long document or to a very large number of documents, the time-limit provided for in paragraph 1 may be extended by 15 working days, provided that the applicant is notified in advance and that detailed reasons are given."
I don't see how the Commission could invoke this exception since they failed to notify the applicant in advance (among other things).
The applicant is now allowed to treat this request as if the access was denied, see Article 7 (4):
"4. Failure by the institution to reply within the prescribed time-limit shall entitle the applicant to make a confirmatory application."
Dear SG UNITE D-1,
Please note that even the extended deadline has now passed. The response to my request is long overdue and should have been responded to by now under all circumstances.
I am therefore initiating a confirmatory application to review the process behind this delay.
Yours sincerely,
Luca Bertuzzi
Dear Mr Bertuzzi,
Please find attached the reply to your access to documents request registered under number 2022/1932. Could you please acknowledge reception in the next five working days to [email address].
Kind regards,
SG.D1
Dear SG UNITE D-1,
Please note that documents 2 1 5 and 2 1 6 are impossible to read. Thank you for providing a non-garbled version.
Yours sincerely,
Luca Bertuzzi
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Exchanges between President von der Leyen's cabinet and EVP Vestager's cabinet on FRAND terms in the Digital Markets Act'.
I believe the Commission did not release all information that was within the scope of my request. There is an overriding interest to release all those documents without restriction or redaction. Moreover, the Commission did not comply with the deadline set by the law, even when the deadline was extended.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/excha...
Yours faithfully,
Luca Bertuzzi
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email dated 20/06/2022 by which you request, pursuant
to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by the
Secretariat-General in reply to your initial application GESTDEM
2022/1932.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 20/06/2022 (Ares(2022)4517131).
Your application will be handled within 15 working days (11/07/2022). In
case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course.
Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a
formal Commission decision that will be notified to you by express
delivery. Thank you for providing your contact phone number, so that the
external delivery service can contact you in case of absence.
Please note that the Commission will not use your phone number for any
other purpose than for informing the delivery service, and that it will
delete it immediately thereafter.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,
My phone number is + 32 0478980138
Yours sincerely,
Luca Bertuzzi
Mathias Schindler left an annotation ()
The European Commission is asking for a postal address in order to register this access to documents request.
Such a requirement is maladministration and the EU Ombudsman office has on several occasions made clear that such a requirement does not exist in law.
I am quoting from https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/export-p... Decision in case 682/2014/JF on the European
Commission’s requirement that persons who ask for
public access to documents provide their postal
address
"The Commission’s requirement that all persons who ask for public access to documents must provide their postal address for its paper post sending arrangements, is maladministration.
The Commission’s failure to register and respond to the complainant’s access to documents request was an instance of maladministration. "