Report from a first transatlantic dialogue on intermediary liability, jointly hosted by the eco Association and the U.S.-based i2Coalition, which brought together renowned Internet industry experts from both sides of the Atlantic.

America has voted.  On the topic of the 59th US presidential election, eco Chair of the Board Oliver Süme says: “For many decades, the relationship between the USA and Germany has been characterised by intensive economic and social interaction. This transatlantic relationship must be reactivated and strengthened over the next four years."

Reducing technological dependencies and networking linear value-added chains in the digital single market more easily – GAIA-X creates the self-determined and sovereign data space for this. Andreas Weiss spoke to a committee of the German parliament about how exactly the initiative will do so.

eco – Association of the Internet Industry & ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers invite you to a joint ICANN69 Readout to summarize and discuss selected topics from the 22nd Virtual Annual General Meeting.

„Data Center Trends in Europe“ is a new series of webinars initiated by DDA and eco. We would like to discuss current issues for data center operators with industry experts on a regulary base.

On the Internet, generally, a third party is always involved. Discussions around the responsibility of that third party is a matter of determining liability in circumstances of real or perceived wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, 28 Oct. 2020, the German government's Digital Agenda Committee discussed data sovereignty in connection with the GAIA-X project. Andreas Weiss, eco Head of Digital Business Models, took part in the committee’s technical discussion.

On the occasion of the final report of the “Artificial Intelligence” Study Commission appointed in June 2018 – which was presented today to the Bundestag – Oliver Süme, Chair of the eco Association, urges legislators not to approach the future-oriented topic of AI with a mere focus on possible risks

The world’s leading Internet Exchange operator DE-CIX was honored at this year’s Global Carrier Awards in the category Best Internet Exchange & Best Internet Exchange Innovation 2020. DE-CIX has now earned this important industry award five times since its inception in 2015.

On November 26, 2020, the eco Association will once again present one of the most prestigious awards in the Internet industry. In six award categories, a jury of experts with representatives from business, science, research or politics selected the three most promising submissions in each case.

The draft law passed today obliges Internet providers and telecommunications companies to cooperate with the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the authorities for the protection of the constitution: In future, companies will be obliged to route “suspicious” data packets to the authorities, who will then subsequently send them on to the actual recipient.

eco – Association of the Internet Industry welcomes the fact that the EU Commission Work Programme for 2021 includes numerous digital focal points and legislative projects to bring Europe through the current Corona crisis both economically and socially, and to make it more resilient.

As part of ICANN69, the eco Association invites you to take a virtual tour of the Smart City Hamburg on 20 October!

At a virtual conference of European digital ministers being held today, an agreement is to be reached on the merging of European cloud capacities. For the Association of the Internet Industry, GAIA-X is considered to be a flagship project in this realm, offering the potential to fully exploit the opportunities of the data economy while at the same time making a reality out of the Digital Single Market.

The eco Association has criticized the draft law presented yesterday by the German Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJV) for the transposition of the EU copyright reform. The draft has not been calibrated with the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), puts technical filters back in the spotlight, and still contains impracticable regulations for service providers.

Tobias, you are well known in the domain name industry, but for those unfamiliar with the industry: Can you tell us about your background? Tobias Sattler: My name is Tobias Sattler, and I am a member of the board at united-domains, where I head the technology and product management. I am also an active member of the...

Owing to constitutional concerns, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has for the moment suspended the drafting of the law on combating right-wing extremism and hate crime. Going back a number of months, eco – Association of the Internet Industry had already expressed considerable constitutional and data protection concerns about the draft law.

The eco Association welcomes the fact that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has remained true to its previous stance on data retention and has delivered a ruling consistent with this. Data retention is only possible, if at all, in very limited exceptional cases.

Where is the public cloud heading? How can SMEs work with the technology? And what role does the partner ecosystem play in choosing a public cloud provider? At the invitation of EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e. V. (EuroCloud), cloud initiative providers from all over Germany recently met in Frankfurt. The reason? To set up a cloud initiative.

With its eye on the forthcoming European Court of Justice decision on blanket data retention, the eco Association warns against an obligation to constantly subject private life to surveillance, and thereby hopes for a ruling which favours fundamental rights in Europe.

According to a new survey commissioned by eco – Association of the Internet Industry,  56% of Germans  believe that digital technologies and applications can have a positive impact on the climate footprint in the future.

Dr. Béla Waldhauser, spokesperson of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures, advocates a holistic view of digital infrastructures, as they contribute to achieving the European climate targets & ensure energy-efficient use of digital applications.

EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e. V. (EuroCloud) is now giving the providers of public cloud-based solutions and services their own voice: EuroCloud Native, or ECN for short, is not only intended to be a specialist forum for cloud-native topics, but also to pool the interests of frequently smaller, young and highly specialised companies and start-ups.

Climate, economy and coronavirus – in her first State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen not only addressed the major challenges facing the EU, but also solutions such as GAIA-X. OVHcloud and T-Systems are now exploring for the first time how the GAIA-X guidelines can be translated into concrete offers.

“Digitalisation in schools is not just a nice to have, but a basic existential requirement for the future of Germany as a location for education and business,” says eco Chair Oliver Süme.

The German federal government published the evaluation report on the deletion of child sexual abuse material*, CSAM for short, on the Internet for the year 2019 on 16 September 2020.

The Internet industry will be one of the most dynamic industries in Germany in the coming years, as a new joint study by the eco Association and the management consultancy Arthur D. Little shows. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, during which individual large segments of the Internet industry suffered slumps, an increase in revenue of almost 75 percent to approximately 253 billion Euro is expected by 2025.

eco sees a clear confirmation of its own assessment and critical analysis of the draft German law on combating right-wing extremism and hate crime and the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG).

In her keynote speech on the State of the European Union today, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out what the eco Association sees as important goals for the Digital Decade, and addressed some of the most urgent challenges in the context of digitalisation.

The Importance of Consent to and (Not) Advertising in Marketing Emails: The second in the series of webinars and workshops offered as part of the 2020 CSA Digital Email Summit took place online on 7 September 2020. Alexandra Koch-Skiba and Sebastian Fitting of the eco Complaints Office, and the CSA’s Astrid Braken took the attendees through legal issues related to permission and advertising in the context of email marketing. Read a quick write-up of the webinar here.