ABSTRACT
The governance of e-commerce, as far as the EU is concerned,
is largely to be shared between government and the private sector. This
integrated approach of self-regulation and state regulation is reflected in
the Directive. Paragraph 13 of the Preamble to the Directive, for
instance, states that, while Member States may decide how they wish to
supervise compliance of the Directive by operators, there should be
room for private sector based supervision systems. The Directive clearly
provides that certificate service providers are not obliged to apply to be
supervised under any applicable accreditation scheme, thereby
ensuring a large degree of autonomy.
